Someone Shot The Messenger
by DasChillyOne
Summary: This is the story of Angelo, Courier Six. This is based on an actual playthrough that was done and said playthrough had several mods installed. This will include original character story arcs, and actual OC's but not in any major capacity such as companions or something. If you are interested feel free to read on, if not that's fine as well.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Well hello and welcome to this fanfic, this is a pseudo-novelization of my current Fallout: New Vegas playthrough that does have mods installed, you'll probably recognize a few. This will cover the main story, side-quests and DLC as well as some unique story arcs for characters. This Courier is 25 years old, so keep that in mind during later parts of the story. This will change some things from quests that allow options that don't exist in the game, so as to better fit the character and test my writing chops. I hope you enjoy.**

Chapter 1: Ain't That a Kick in the Head

If you had told me a week ago that if survive being shot in the head at point blank I'd have called you crazy, but I suppose I'd have to take that back now. My name is Angelo, and I am a courier. I'm originally from a little village in the NCR, nothing fancy and pretty safe for the most part, I grew up looking up at NCR troopers and had for a time, been training to be one, I was taken out of the service for insubordination, so I took my skills to use as a courier, as I'd always had good endurance to run the long distances in the short time, I'd made a bit of a name for myself, that led to my being hired by the Mojave Express as Courier Six of Six carrying packages to the New Vegas Strip. I'd known this tactic before, hire several couriers to hide a single package, I'd done it for the NCR before, usually carrying troop orders and the like, confidential information, I'd realized that it's effective and agreed to carry my package, guessing that I probably had the valuable one, given the description of it. One oversized poker chip, composed of platinum, pretty valuable stuff pre-war from what I can gather, it wasn't until later that I found out just how valuable that chip would be.

I wake up and things are blurry, my head hurts, mostly just above my right eye, and my limbs are cold and heavy, but in pain and therefore still attached, chalking that one up to a win. My vision focuses and I see an older gentleman to my side, balding and with a neatly combed and very thick moustache. "You're awake." He says, appearing to be pleasantly surprised. "You'd been shot in the head, and buried in a grave up in the graveyard, a local robot dug you up and brought you to me, I tried to pull all the lead and sand out of your brain, and I pride myself on my skill, but I wasn't too sure you'd pull through. Glad to be wrong. Can you tell me your name?"

"Angelo," I respond, my voice is hoarse and my throat is dry, it hurts to speak slightly, but not too bad, a nice drink of water and I'll be fine.

"Well, at least you're talking, that's a good sign, do you think you can stand?" He asks as he rises from the chair he'd been sitting in.

"Only one way to find out," I say and I sit up and place my feet on the ground. My vision blurs and head hurts from the change in position, and I feel ever so slightly nauseous, but I remain standing.

"Let's check your vitals, try to walk over to that 'Vigor Tester' machine, that should give us a baseline physical exam." He gestures to a machine on the far wall, it fits with the décor, very western in appearance, wouldn't surprise me if it was used in a pediatric office pre-war, is almost swear it should read it's text in a southern drawl.

I make a few uneasy steps, then get my bearings and am able to walk with some amount of normalcy, given that I'd probably been out for a few days, it's probably expected. I place my hand on the thematic machine and it gives me the standard S.P.E.C.I.A.L score that got introduced before the war as a means of more easily identifying someone's strengths pre-war. According to it I'm of average strength, slightly less than average perception. Above average endurance, average charisma, the second highest intellect score recognized by the machine, average agility, and above average "luck" how it could perceive that I'll never know.

The doc makes a joke about how the bullet must have made me smarter and I give a chuckle, it's nice to see someone who could make light of my situation, as dire as it may seem it helps to laugh. "Come on, I have some mental procedures to go through before I can let you go in good conscience, I have to make sure that you are still able to process information effectively and without issue." He leads me into a room with some bookshelves, a couch, and a chair off to the side, he gestures for me to sit on the couch and takes a book off the shelf before he drops into the chair. He goes through some word association, then some agree/disagree statements, I follow through as well as I can, and then he shoes me some inkblots, I respond with what I see and he appears to be content with my answering abilities.

"Now, before you go, I have some questions for you, before this incident, what skills did you have? I need to know so I can monitor your recovery." The doc asks, taking out a pencil and some paper.

"I'm a pretty good shot with standard firearms, I never dabbled into energy weapons but would be willing to try, I'm very good at fixing things, and I'm able to figure out nearly any machine that I've found. I also dabbled in medicine, read quite a few medical journals and can perform the basic procedures and first aid, although I'm no surgeon." I respond, thinking back to the times those skills have come in handy. I ask, "What do you mean monitoring my recovery?"

"Did you really expect that I'd just be okay with possibly sending a possibly mentally disabled person out into the wasteland when I could monitor them first?" He asks, seemingly confused at my question, as though it was obvious. "I'm not going to keep you cooped up inside here all the time, but I am going to have to keep you in town for a while, if I'm comfortable with the state your in after a week or so I'll let you mosey on to wherever you go, and don't think about running off, I've radioed to the nearest towns a rough description of you, and I'll let them know that you're awake and not to be allowed outside Goodsprings, which is where you are by the way."

"I suppose that makes sense, can I have your name so I can properly thank you for saving my life?" I ask politely.

"People call me Doc Mitchell, welcome to Goodsprings, here, II have a few things for you." He reaches down into a duffel bag that he has had sat beside his chair that I hadn't noticed beforehand and pulls out a few items: a pale blue vault suit with a bright '21' emblazoned on the back in yellow, an object that i recognize as a Pip-Boy 3000A, and a pair of leather boots. "You'll want to put this on. I'd have given you the clothes you'd been wearing when you got here but they were so covered in blood and sand that it just wouldn't come out. I can't wear this old thing anymore anyway but it's around your size. The Pip-Boy is so I can keep a better eye on your vitals, but it's got all sorts of useful stuff for you, like a Geiger counter, holotape player, map, et cetera."

"Well thanks Doctor Mitchell, I do appreciate it. Do you mind if I step outside?"

"Put this on and you can go right on out, feel free to help out around town, I can't find anything physically wrong with you now, it's just mental health I'm concerned about." He says getting up from his chair.

"Do you happen to have an extra set of glasses lying around? My eyes aren't quite as good as they should be, so I need some kind of focusing lens." I say, rubbing my eyes.

"Yeah, there's a spare set lying on the counter next to the bed you woke up in, you can grab them on the way out. While you're out there you may want to meet some of the locals, Sunny Smiles in particular, they could use some help and you could stand to have a comfortable place to sleep, I've got to keep the beds open in case someone gets seriously hurt, you understand right?" He asks apologetically.

"I understand, I'll find someplace don't worry." I get up from the couch and walk over to the bed where i woke up, notice the glasses on the counter nearby and put them on, my vision gets a bit sharper and I smile, atleast knowing that I can see. I then put on the jumpsuit, which is easier than I thought it would be, and place the boots on my (thankfully) sock clad feet. The Pip-Boy latches on my arm and I feel a sharp pain rip through my body, as though every single nerve in my body fired at once. Doc notices this and runs over.

"Well lookee there. Looks like you get to use VATS." He says smugly glancing at the Pip-Boy that now resides on my left arm.

"What's VATS?" I ask confused, the pain was only for a brief moment, but I feel this weird, almost humming feeling in my arm, underneath my Pip-Boy.

"From what I can gather, when RobCo made the Pip-Boy they also created a system for more accurate weapon firing, since they originally planned to have them used in the military, they could never truly get the process functional for everyone as only certain individuals could actually manage to use the system, no one could ever figure out the correlation, so RobCo sent some to the vaults to see if they could keep it going even in the event of apocalyptic annihilation, figuring it would prove useful if the people ever found need to fight." He explains, he flips through some notes that are stored on the Pip-Boy and selects one. "This should explain how to actually utilize the system, I never could do it, but an old friend of mine could and I once saw him shoot the eye out of a radroach with it."

"Pretty cool stuff." I say giving a cursory glance through the document, I figure a true trial by fire test might be good later, assuming I keep this thing long enough. "I'm going to head out then, see if I can help out around town. If you need help with a patient or whatever give me a yell."

"Try to stay out of trouble kid, I'd hate to see you back here for more than a social call." Doc says.

"I'll try to but trouble seems to find me," I say, laughing heartily.

I open the door and take my first step outside, the light of the midday sun blinds me as I exit, but my eyes adjust quickly enough. I see a strange robot wheel itself around the house directly in front of me and follow the path towards the saloon. The saloon itself has a series of letters on the top section that identify it as the Prospector's Saloon, and next to it a similar building identifies itself as the Goodsprings General Store.

Taking a few steps down and into the road I see an old Poseidon Energy Gas Station on the mountain next to Doc Mitchell's home. Down the road that leads away from the saloon I see a few ranch houses and what appears to be an old school house that the fencing denotes as abandoned. A building next to it identifies itself as Pembroke Repairs. A few various farmers and ranchers mill about minding their own business.

I turn toward the saloon, and begin my quest to get my package back.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Thanks for reading into the second chapter, this should hopefully give some development for Angelo, and introduce the first of our love interests, (and yes there are several, I'll touch on that later). Hopefully you guys are enjoying this so far, and if you would kindly leave a review and tell me what you think that'd be swell!**

Chapter 2: Back in the Saddle

As I made my way toward the saloon, I made notice of the clothing the people were wearing around me. Most were wearing very dark clothes that covered their entire bodies, which I imagine wouldn't help very much in this heat. As hot as it is though, the heat is tolerable, if only due to how dry it is, of all the places that seemed to be untouched by the war, it seems odd that The Mojave would be the place House would save.

Pushing my thoughts aside I pushed my way into the saloon and was immediately pounced upon by a dog, and while not exactly a small thing, it wasn't very heavy, and was definitely more used to throwing its weight rather than standing its ground in combat, probably the perfect dog to deal with small threats, like the Geckos that I know inhabit these parts. A voice in front of me yells "Cheyenne, Stay!" and the dog leaps off of me, though it seems to be either wary of me, or really wanting to play, not too sure which.

"Sorry about that," The voice says, and I place it to a petite woman, who appears to barely come up to my shoulder, wearing a patchwork leather jacket and pants, which probably offers good protection from light scrapes, but is undoubtedly absolutely horrendous to wear in the sun. "She typically doesn't like newcomers, but stays when I tell her too."

"No harm done, not too sure if she wanted to eat me or play with me, I'm going to hope for the latter." I say, kneeling down to give the dog a few pats on the head, she takes them nicely, and wags her tail excitedly, as though she's found a new friend to play with. "I take it you're Sunny Smiles?"

"That I am, Doc send you my way?" She retorts, leaning against the doorframe perpendicular to the entrance.

"Yep, said I was to meet some people around town, mentioned you specifically, also said I should help out, so need any help?" I ask, suddenly feeling self-conscious of the Vault-Suit I'm wearing, while it is surprisingly comfortable to be made of leather, it doesn't exactly offer the most protection, or help in hiding in the desert.

"I could use some help clearing out some Geckos from the wells around Goodsprings, as you could probably guess from the name, town's primary trade is water, and without the wells, we don't have much of that." She says, resuming standing upright and adjusting the strap for the rifle on her back.

"I'm an alright shot, so I'd be more than willing to help, a little lacking in the gun department though."

"I've got a spare Varmint Rifle, not the best thing in the world, but it'll fire. Let's head out back and see just how good of a shot you are." She says before walking towards the back of the building and presumably towards a back door.

As I follow her out I notice a makeshift workshop set up outside the general store, and see her finishing setting some Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles on a small bit of fencing. She hands me a rifle and I follow her to a spot. "Give it your best shot." She says, crossing her arms and smirking as though she's expecting me to be unable to.

More than a little annoyed with her attitude I align the sights on the weapon and fire three shots in rapid succession, with accompanying sounds of broken glass and thuds as the bottles break and hit the pavement.

"Not bad, but I didn't bring you out here to hunt bottles, let's go Gecko hunting." She says, whistling for her dog and motioning for me to follow her. In a few minutes we arrive at a series of water pumps, surrounded by Geckos, with one woman there being attacked by them, I notice she's armed with a meat cleaver, and while that would be more than enough to deal with a single gecko, they just seem to be swarming her.

Without a moments pause I run in, taking a few shots with my varmint rifle at some of the outlying ones before reaching the woman. Beside her I notice a shovel and, while elbowing a Gecko to put some distance between it and the civilian, grab it to swing. The heavy metal blade of the shovel connects with a Gecko's neck and rips it from its body in a shower of viscera. Another swing crushes the skull of a second Gecko and knocks it to the ground. The remaining few Geckos are swiftly dealt with by Sunny and Cheyenne, and we all regroup.

"How many times have I told you people about coming out here by yourselves? You are adults and have been living here longer than I've been alive. Come in pairs! It's not that hard!" Sunny yells at the woman, on closer inspection her hair has greyed, and her skin wrinkled, she's obviously older and not in the prime of her life anymore, which is probably why she had such problems with the Geckos.

"You're right, you're right, I know better, I just didn't want old Pete to come out here with his back and all, that man'll work 'imself to an early grave." The woman says, using a cloth from her bag to wipe off her meat cleaver. "Who's this strapping young lad?"

"He's the one Doc Mitchell was patching up, that Victor found in the graveyard." Sunny says, seemingly calmed down.

"Well I'll be, wasn't sure he was going to make it, here take this, as thanks for saving me." The woman says as she hands me a bag, inside I find a few full bottles of water, a 9mm pistol with some ammo, and a meat cleaver, though this one has a rusted blade. "That's my old Chopper! Used to keep me safe and fed, though since it got so rusty I can't cook with it no more."

"Thank you ma'am, I really appreciate it." I say as I turn to Sunny, "Need any more help?"

"Nah, I reckon that was it, word is you're gonna need a place to hole up for a while, til' Doc gives the okay at least. Best person to ask is Delilah, she lives right next to the general store, she's been helping Doc recently, she had her Pa and Uncle die in the past two years so she's a little on the lonely side, maybe you can cheer her up a bit." Sunny says throwing her rifle back over her shoulder. "Keep the rifle, I've got a few spares, and consider it payment for the job you did."

"Thanks then, guess I'll go see Delilah." I say as I escort the older woman back to the town.

Heading to the building mentioned I knock on the door a few times and am greeted with a strange sight. In front of me stands a woman, a few inches shorter than I am, with leg guards, a shirt that shows her abdomen, a few tribal tattoos on her arms and black hair that is pulled into a small pigtail on each side.

"Can I help you?" She asks, her voice is quiet and sweet, but at the same time she seems weary of me, which I suppose with times how they are is understandable.

"I'm the guy Doc Mitchell was patching up, that the robot found in the grave. Sunny Smiles said I should ask you for a place to sleep, since Doc wants to keep an eye on me and you apparently have been working with him." I retort keeping eye contact but putting on a small smile, trying to be as friendly as possible, I'd like to be nice to these people after all, they saved my life.

"I suppose, come on in, I'm about to have dinner, you're more than welcome to join me, company would be nice." She says, motioning me inside and toward a dinner table, only one place is set, undoubtedly hers, but she rushes and grabs a plate and utensils before cutting off some of a large hunk of meat from the counter. "You came at a good time, it's always easier to cook a good portion of a BigHorner at once, usually lasts me a while, but it makes it easy to feed visitors."

I thank her for the food and sit down with my meal in front of me, waiting for her to start eating before I do, she is the host after all, I hate intruding enough as it is.

"So what got you shot in the head in the first place if you don't mind me asking?" She asks. Straight to the point, I can admire that in a woman.

"I'm a courier, and was contracted by the Mojave Express to deliver a package, from what I can gather, this man wanted that package, and was willing to kill me for it." I respond, might as well be honest.

"Dangerous job, hope you get worker's comp. for medical leave." She says, half-jokingly, half seriously.

"Unfortunately, company policy is that any death, dismemberment, or other bodily harm that comes to the courier while delivering a package is the sole problem of the courier. Most people typically don't mess with couriers, we don't typically enough cargo to make us appealing targets, usually all we carry is letters and small worthless packages, most people trust caravans for more valuable things, easier to guard." I explain.

"Wow, that's fascinating." She says, and the look in her eyes implies that she's not sarcastic about it, she's leaned forward as though she's holding on to my every word, and, if she had a pencil and paper, I'm pretty sure she'd be taking notes.

"Enough about my job, what do you do?" I ask, hoping to get away from my cranial conundrum as quickly as possible.

"I've been helping Doc with patients, my Uncle Sulik taught me tribal medicine and my dad collected books of all kinds, many of them medical, between them and Doc Mitchell I've just been trying to learn enough about medicine to help people who need it, Doc says he won't be around forever, so someone's got to help these people." She says, with a determination I've only seen from a few people, one of them…. Actually I can't remember who, although I feel I should. Probably an issue with my head being shot, a few memories might go missing.

"I heard about your family do you want to talk about it? I've gone through that too, I know how it feels, while I never knew my father, I did know my mother and my sister, and I lost them." I say, while bringing up the memories is painful, I've come to peace with them, and know that I want to give this girl the help I went without.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened? I'm not sure if I'm comfortable enough to talk about mine right now, but I do thank you for the offer." She says.

As much as it pains me to say it, I couldn't say no to the look on her face, this woman is adorable while also being incredibly attractive, if my situation weren't as it is currently, I'd be all over her.

"My family grew up not too far from here, a little more south maybe. That area is sort of unclaimed, we have NCR around, but they're less stationed there and more exploring further territory options. A while back, a group of raiders came, a tribe from across the Colorado, and attacked the town. They took over for a small time, and in that time they brought the woman in the town to the center. I was forced to watch as they each took their turns with the women I'd grown up with, everyone from my best friend's mom, to my own sister, and had to watch as once they were finished with them, they just blew their brains out. This tribe would eventually join the legion, and spark my hatred for them. The NCR eventually mounted a counterattack and drove them off, but it was too late for my family, I was probably only 14 at this time, but they found a nice home for me, it was a ranch family, with the "parents" being up in years, they'd had a few kids grow up, but when they heard about my village they offered to take in a kid, I was the lucky one to get put with them. I do miss them, and I try to write them whenever I get a chance, but it doesn't quite fill that void."

"I can't even imagine what that must be like, that's terrible to even think about." She says, downtrodden.

"Losing family is always hard, you just have to push through it, honor their memory, and be willing to live for them. Besides, that event gave me purpose, one I thought I'd never get." I say, my voice filling with determination.

"And what's that?" She asks, intrigued.

"That son of a bitch Caesar dies by my hand." I say with vigor.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Ghost Town Gunfight

 **AN: This Chapter focuses on the battle of Goodsprings and is meant to also provide a bit more character interaction between Angelo and Delilah, this is also the single longest thing I have ever written, and will take this story over 10,000 words, which to me is pretty impressive. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reads, and my wonderful girlfriend who is following this story intently as well as letting me bounce ideas off of her whenever I'm unsure of something in a chapter. I'd very much appreciate it if you guys would review and tell me what you think of the story. Also, let me know what you'd like to see, while this is based on a playthough I'm still currently doing, I'm more than willing to change elements of it to better satisfy my reader's desires and my own internal narrative. Anyways, on with the chapter!**

After my conversation with Delilah (Which after the end of us discussing my hatred of Caesar and his legion, went into more about us and our interests, and eventually ended on happier notes.) I'd went to bed and had a pretty good night's sleep, all things considered. I woke up at around 3 A.M., which is standard for me, it's always a bit better for a courier to travel some ground at night, to increase the chances that our deliveries reach areas by morning so as to maximize the time a person can spend with whatever we carry. Without a package though my morning feels hollow.

I use the time before the sun rises to ponder my situation, as well as prepare myself for the day. Most of my questions involve the package I was carrying and what was so important about it that that man was willing to hire two Khans to get it. From what little I saw of the guy, I'm able to at least figure out a few things about him. First, that suit is custom, no other one probably exists in the wastes, and it fit him pretty well, implying that it was made specifically for him and not just looted off of a body. That means that that guy comes from money, even more so to be able to hire a couple of Great Khans, they aren't like the Jackals or Vipers, they have some amount of income separate from looting and robbery, even if it is drug trade, so this guy is paying large amounts of caps for that service. Given the local area, he's either a member of a Vegas family, some low ranking member of a New Reno family (Though I've been to New Reno and he doesn't really look like a Wright or a Van Graff, I suppose he could be a Bishop, but they don't typically operate that far out here.) or a Brahmin baron, but that one's even more unlikely. If he's any of those three though, that makes Vegas the best place to look for him. Although, I do have to question how good of an idea it is to chase down a man who shot me in the head. Revenge aside, if he had that kind of backup he's probably more well connected than I could ever dream of, and probably only killed me himself because he doesn't want someone else to know of his plan. That alone probably means that he's got some boss over him that he doesn't want to know he's making his own play.

Pushing those thoughts away, I look to how I could get to New Vegas, as despite my reservations, I am contractually obligated to deliver that package, a courier who fails to deliver a package is typically seen as unreliable, and though I won't really lose much work over this, it will make me less likely to be picked than someone else. Though I think after this I'll hang up my courier hat, there are other fields of work I'd do well in.

By the time I've gathered my thoughts and had a good washing I hear someone else awaken and assuming it's Delilah, I step out to greet her. I am met with a gasp in surprise and a shill scream of: "Where are your clothes!?"

Looking down at myself I notice that I am, in fact, wearing only a set of boxer shorts, and realize the situation I'm in. "Destroyed according to Doc Mitchell, all I had was that Vault Suit he gave me, said the clothes I was wearing when I was shot were too caked in sand and blood to be washed. Don't suppose you have anything spare?" I say, hopefully.

A blush forms on her cheeks as she motions to a closet in the room I was staying in. "J-just put something on! They should fit, you're around the same size as Dad and Uncle Sulik." She stutters out, I would've chuckled, but I held it in, as I doubt she finds this situation as humorous as I do. Stepping in the room and closing the door, I open the closet and find a few sets of clothes, though one that stands out to me is a set of worn denim jeans, and a white T-shirt. Putting that on I notice a Gecko leather jacket further back in the closet, and I through that on over the shirt, as hot as it gets, protecting my arms from sunburn is pretty important and I can't see any long sleeved shirts inside the closet. I step out of the room and tank Delilah, and put my boots on. "I'm going to go see if I can help anyone else around town out, if you need me you should be able to find me pretty quick." I say, flashing her the best smile I can manage, I like this girl, she seems nice to me, so being on her good side can't be a bad thing. She smiles at me and waves me off, and I step outside.

Experience has taught me that whenever I'm looking for work, the best place is always the bar, or in this town's case saloon, I walk that way and say hi to the old man on the porch, as I step inside I notice that Sunny isn't there, or anyone really, I guess that makes sense, no one comes to a bar at 6 in the morning. I take a seat at one of the booths that line the wall and all of a sudden I hear a voice. Well, hearing is the wrong word, I feel a voice, inside my head. "Cranial Synchronization complete, hello Angelo! I am your RobCo issued Pip-boy's Artificial Intelligence operating system, designed to make your experience as easy as possible. I have catalogued your memories and have done my best to recover some of the damaged ones, although a few are unsalvageable, until such a time comes that you need the extra room up here I shall keep them in hopes that some memory link will form with them. Should you need to contact me, you need only think what you want to say and I shall attempt to answer you accordingly." The A.I. says, for some reason I do believe what it is saying, probably because it is inside my head. I ask it what functions it performs and it responds accordingly, "I am here to help you manage your personal belongings and personal health, you are in possession of one of the few Pip-Boys that possessed these features, as most humans are unable to process the information that an A.I. brings, from what RobCo and Vault-Tec scientists were able to gather a high base intelligence is required for one to be able to use this feature, so you should probably not mention it to anyone else. As for functions I can perform, I possess the ability to 'display' your health and AP, you get a reading in your mind that gives you an accurate amount of how much punishment your body can take before you shut down. AP is my ability to provide resources to certain sections of your brain for short periods of time, this can allow you to seemingly slow down time, though this is accomplished by speeding up brain function by lowering blood flow to some extremities, not life-threateningly mind you, as it is only in short bursts. You can also use it to be able to sprint faster by using a similar method to strengthen the muscles in your legs to be able to handle the situation more easily, similarly to how adrenalin can make you ignore certain factors in order to achieve a desired result. Your pip-boy is also in control of a small translocation device, you can use this to store items that you need access to, but cannot physically carry on you at all times, the amount you can store there is based entirely on your physical strength, but can be influenced in other ways as well. As you pass certain thresholds I am allowed to offer you 'perks' these allow you to make use of various features that I am able to bestow upon your body, but I can only offer a certain amount of them. These are very strenuous on the body and mind, and are still currently in the testing phase, however, given that there is currently no existing RobCo, any information gathered by your experience will not be used to create a friendlier user experience for any other user."

After that experience, I hear someone else come into the saloon, a woman, middle aged, with neatly cut hair walks by me and sets herself up behind the bar, behind her follows Sunny, who takes her seat opposite of me and flashes a smile, Cheyenne in her constant presence proceeds to jump up into the booth and takes her seat right next to me before yawning and laying her head across my lap.

"Trudy, this is Angelo, the one Doc was fixin' up, he helped me clear out the geckos at the well yesterday and saved old Mrs. McCoy." Sunny says, motioning to me.

The woman, identified as Trudy, says "Well, hate that you got such a cold reception but welcome to Goodsprings, you still looking to stick around?"

I nod and respond: "Until Doc says I can leave, I'm obligated to stay, do you need anything done?"

She pulls a radio from a counter that was behind her and says "If you can fix this I'd be grateful, the guys who came in before you knocked it down and broke it. I'd pay you, of course."

I get up, much to Cheyenne's displeasure and open up the casing on the radio, seems that there are some internal components that broke loose when it fell, but the repairs are easy enough, after about an hour of working on it I manage to get it up and running, and no sooner do I finish than the door opens again.

In walks a man, dark skinned with a shaved head and goatee, wearing a riot vest and prisoner fatigues. "Hey, bitch, where's that punk Ringo at?"

"I've told you before Cobb, he's not here, now get lost."

"Fine, but if the next time I come in here, you don't hand over Ringo I'm gonna get my friends and we're burning this town to the ground." Cobb says, before turning around and walking out, ignoring me entirely.

After her leaves I ask, "What's with that asshole?"

"A while back we had a trader from the Crimson Caravan come in, saying he was attacked by Powder Gangers further up I-15, we figured he was in shock and let him stay in the old gas station on the hill, It's comfortable enough in there. Anyways, Cobb comes in every few days after that and demands to know where Ringo is, as he's seen him around, personally I hope Ringo just slips away in the middle of the night once, but there's not really a safe place for him to go that doesn't have Powder Gangers between here and there." Trudy says.

"Why not just, you know, kill Cobb and be done with it? It's obvious he's a criminal and isn't going to leave this place alone."

"It's not really our way, we just really don't want to be involved." Trudy replies, taking the radio from me when I offer it to her, she gives me 50 caps and places it back on the counter and turns it on, tuning into to the 'Deep, sultry voice of Mr. New Vegas'.

"Well, I'm here to help, so I'm going to see if he needs some." I say, getting up from my barstool and moving towards the door.

"I'll come with, I really don't think they'll leave this place alone." Sunny says getting up to follow me, Cheyenne has fallen asleep in the booth and doesn't follow.

As we enter the gas station I immediately feel a gun pointed at my temple and a cry of "Don't move!"

"If you're going to shoot me in the head, please note that someone before you did it twice about a week ago and yet I'm still here, so could you either kill me definitely or not fire, I'm trying to help you Ringo." I say calmly, I'm pretty good at talking my way out of situations.

"Alright, sorry about that, I've got a guy after me." Ringo says taking the gun away from my head and offering me a Sunset Sarsaparilla.

"Yeah, Cobb right? I'm here to talk to you about that, I'd like to help you out, this town did pretty good by me and I'm pretty sure that now the Powder Gangers see how easy it'd be to take over, they're probably going to take it, most likely the only reason they haven't yet is probably waiting for reinforcements to come from NCRCF." I say, popping the top on my drink and examining the cap, it has a blue star on it, but I pocket it quickly.

"Oh hey! That's one of them Star Bottle caps, you collect them?" Ringo asks noticing the cap I just pulled off.

"Yeah, I'm not 100 percent sure if the treasure exists, but I figure if it does it may be worth it to save them, besides, even if it doesn't they're neat, and I like to collect odds and end that I find interesting." I say, before I was shot in the head, I'd had around 20 of them, but they were probably taken from me by the guys who shot me, maybe one of them still has them.

"Well here, if you can help me deal with Cobb and his cronies, I'll give you all my star caps, I've got around 10, that I've collected over a few years, not too interested in the treasure, ever since I heard about this Allen Marx guy, so they're all yours." Ringo says, laying 10 bottle caps with blue stars on them on the counter beside me.

"I'm okay with that, was probably going to help anyway but rewards are always nice." I say, placing my hand behind my head as Ringo deadpans.

"Figures, well, if you help they're yours." Ringo says.

Sunny joins in the conversation, "Well, if we plan to take on Powder Gangers we're going to need more than just the three of us, we'll need supplies, extra hands, et cetera."

"You've got a point, what do you think I could do to get those things?" I ask, Sunny's plan has credence, extra help would be good, less likely for any one individual to get hurt.

"Well, for extra manpower you should probably talk to Trudy, when she talks, people listen, and if anyone's likely to get a militia going it's her. Chet could probably help with supplies, but you'd have to make a pretty good argument as to why he should, probably help to either pay for the supplies yourself, or have good mercantile sense. Doc Mitchell might have some spare medical supplies, that'd be useful for treating injuries on the battlefield, and Easy Pete has dynamite stored someplace, that'd be useful to deal with them pretty quickly, but you'd probably have to show him you're pretty good with explosives before he'd even consider getting it out." Sunny says, her plan seems pretty sound, and hopefully it works out.

"Alright then, I'll head and try to convince as many people as I can to offer assistance. Sunny, think you can scope out a few good cover spots? You know, places we can hide behind and fire from." I ask, trying to form some sort of game plan in my head.

"You got it, there should be a couple places here and there we can use." Sunny says, seemingly excited at the prospect of defending her town.

"Awesome, Ringo, if you can help her with that, do it, the odds that the powder gangers will attack at the very moment you're outside are pretty slim, especially since Cobb had just came in the bar today." I say, Cobb struck me as a bit of a bully, while he acts tough, he does it to avoid conflict, if you act big and bad enough, people probably will start to think you are in fact big and bad.

"You've got it, there's a few things around inside of here, feel free to take anything you need, there's a safe underneath the mattress that I haven't been able to crack, maybe there's something good in there." Ringo says, pointing to a metal box in the floor.

I head over there and grab a bobby pin from the counter, as well as pull out a Swiss army knife that I found in the pack Mrs. McCoy gave me and insert them both into the lock. After a few seconds of feeling around I manage to open the safe and find some very useful contents inside. The first of which was a 10mm Pistol, the metal on it was weathered, but not rusted, it seemed well maintained, but also incredibly well used. The second was a double-barreled shotgun, unlike most of those that have two triggers with the barrels aligned with each other horizontally, this one had them lined vertically, and had only one trigger, there was no sight on the weapon, just a screw where the sight would be, however, given that it is a shotgun, that probably is more than enough. Also inside were a few magazines of 10mm ammo, probably around 60 total bullets, and a few boxes of shotgun shells, pretty useful in all honesty.

"I've been trying that for days and couldn't make any headway, yet you do it in seconds, wow." Ringo says, seemingly disappointed.

"I'm a courier, my job is to deliver items as fast and efficiently as possible, sometimes you have to pick a lock to get through a door that's between you and your target." I say, putting the knife back in my pocket and scooping up some bobby pins into a small compartment in my Pip-Boy.

"Figures, regardless, if we really want to be ready for Cobb and his boys you should probably run along, we really don't want to get caught with our pants down." Ringo says, gesturing towards the door.

"Right, I'm on it, we'll meet up in front of the Saloon in an hour." I say, holstering the pistol on my leg.

"Got it." Both Sunny and Ringo say, before we all three leave.

My first stop is the Saloon, I figure if I'm going to get supplies, I should know how many people I can expect to be fighting with. As I step inside Cheyenne perks up and looks at me, but immediately lays her head back down upon realizing that I'm not Sunny. I walk over to the bar and speak to Trudy, "Hey, we're trying to get some sort of defense ready to fight the Powder Gangers, do you think you can help?"

"Now why would I do that? I don't have any desire to fight any Powder Gangers, and why should I risk my neck for a stranger?" Trudy asks.

"Well, I do believe that even if you were to hand over Ringo right now, you'd never hear the end of the Powder Gangers, because even if they don't decide to just take over the town, they'd just extort you since you'd shown that you'd rather just give in then stand up for yourself." I say, trying to sound as convincing and authoritative as possible. While I do believe this to be true, sometimes you just need the extra push of confidence to convince someone to do anything.

"You know, I was planning to sit this one out, but, something about you, about how you spoke, it just, clicked, I'll round up as much of a militia I can, if you can get Chet to supply us that's be great, everyone owns a gun, but Sunny and Delilah are the only ones I know who own any sort of "armor". By the way, while I've got sway over some of the older members of our community, Delilah is someone that I've got no sway over, she never really had too many friends in town, kept to herself and her family mostly, honestly the only person I know who she'd definitely listen to would be Doc Mitchell, but she might listen to you, she came in earlier for some water, information on you, she seemed to be rather enthralled, you must have left quite the impression on her." Trudy says, nudging my arm.

"Alright thanks, if I manage to get supplies I'll bring them to you so you can get them distributed." I say, turning to head towards the door.

As I make my way out I notice the old man on the porch again, Delilah told me last night that this was 'Easy Pete McCoy' I was honestly a little surprised, this was the Easy Pete she'd told me stories about taking down Giant Radscorpions with dynamite, which is no easy feat, yet here he looks like a frail old man who can barely move. I guess it is true what they say about looks being deceiving.

"You're Pete McCoy right?" I ask, trying to be polite, respect your elders and all that.

"Yep." He says, plainly.

"We're trying to fight the Powder Gangers, I heard you had dynamite, that'd be useful for thinning their numbers, can you spare some?"

"No, too dangerous. Blow yourself up." He says, taking out a pipe.

"I'm well trained in explosives, dynamite included, I was an NCR soldier at one point, specialized in crowd control and combat medicine."

"Maybe you can handle it, maybe. You'll have some. Thanks for saving my wife." He says.

"Thank you sir, I promise you won't regret it. Tell your wife I said hello, and thanks for the supplies." I say, shaking his hand. I wave goodbye to him as I head toward the general store, I'd never dealt with Chet, and I doubt I'll be making a good first impression by asking him for supplies, unfortunately I don't have much of a choice, I can't really take the extra time to warm him up to me, since we need to be ready for the Powder Gangers.

I step in the shop and immediately notice that Chet is very obviously not used to dealing in weapons, he does have a few scattered about, but there isn't much that is truly worth purchasing. Chet steps out from a room behind the counter and says, "You must be the one Doc Mitchell was patching up, looking to buy some supplies?"

"The town is about to be attacked by Powder Gangers and we could use some extra supplies, armor, ammo, whatever you can spare." I say, trying to get straight to the point.

"I didn't agree to taking on a gang, while I love this town you're talking about a 1000 cap investment, that might not even save us, given that the only two of us with any real combat experience are Sunny and Pete, and neither really ever went against people." Chet says, seemingly offended by my demands.

"Well, it's either that 1000 caps and a chance that you can keep this shop open to make it back, or you keep that stuff and more than likely get a nice hole through your skull by a Powder Ganger, you pick" I say, harsh but occasionally you need to confront people with reality in order to convince them.

"You've got a point, fine, I've got some spare ammo and armor stored away, here, you can take this since you seem to be leading this whole shebang." He says, handing me a pistol, its small and silver, and I immediately recognize it as a .22 pistol, while not a particularly powerful handgun, it is very quiet and good for dealing with people sneakily, this could be very useful. I stow it in my bag and have my Pip-Boy store it in the storage bay.

"Thank you, these supplies will make a big difference I assure you, I'm honestly convinced we can do this now, but I'm going to stack the odds as high in our favor as I can." I say, shaking his hand and moving outside.

After I exit the store I head next door to speak to Delilah, I find her sitting on her couch reading a book, I can't quite make out the title, but from the images that I can make out on the spine it is most likely a medical journal of some kind, she looks up as me as I enter. "Something going on? I didn't expect you to be back before 3 and it is only noon. Do you need lunch?" She asks, putting a marker in her book before getting up and quickly making her way to me.

"No, Delilah, I don't need lunch, thanks for the offer though, I do however need your help. The town is probably going to get attacked by Powder Gangers and we could use the extra help, I was wondering if you'd fight with us? Or at least be willing to help treat anyone who gets injured in the process?" I ask, trying to appeal to her skills.

"I'd be more than happy to help, I don't want no stinking Powder Gangers taking out my home, count me in for both, I'm not a terrible shot, and I've got a revolver in the other room I can use, but I'll undoubtedly be significantly better at treating people's injuries then fighting, but if I can prevent the injuries in the first place that's even better!" She says excitedly, before running into the next room and grabbing a .357 revolver, it seems to be in pretty good shape, and it's definitely loaded, on her leg I notice a several bands of .357 ammo, undoubtedly for quick loading. "If you don't mind can I stick by you until they get here? You've already received one bullet injury in the past week, if you get another I'd like to treat it as soon as possible." She says blushing ever so slightly.

"Sure, I'm about to head to Doc's place to see if he can spare some medical supplies, maybe between the two of us he'll be more willing to share some." I say, making towards the door, the shorter girl following excitedly behind me.

As I make my way up to Doc's house I notice that Chet has begun handing out sets of armor and ammo to the townsfolk in front of the saloon, and see Sunny and Ringo waiting with them out front.

Entering Doc's place, I notice him examining his bookshelf before he turns to look at us. "I'd hoped I hadn't needed to see you so soon, how're you holding up?" He asks, making his way to me and giving my body a quick once over, trying to discern whether or not I need medical attention.

"I'm fine, but the town is about to fight some Powder Gangers, and while there will be two combatants with some amount of medical training, we'd like some extra medical supplies if you can spare some." I say, getting to the point, Doc's a good guy, I'm hoping he'll help, and if he does I'll be even more in his debt, this man will be receiving a lot of caps from me for the foreseeable future.

"Alright then, people can't seem to leave each other alone, but I guess it was inevitable that someone would try to fight this little town of ours, I can't help much in a fight, with my bum leg, but I can spare some supplies, hold on a second." Doc then walks into the back and comes out with a duffel bag. "This has got some Stimpacks, Med-X and some other various medical supplies in it, hopefully you won't need to use it, but from what I've seen of Delilah she's more than capable, and if your skills are at least half as good as hers you two will do fine."

"Thanks Doc, I promise I'll pay you back for this and my surgery, You'll be receiving money from me for a very long time." I say, shaking his hand.

"No problem, now go on quickly, if things go south and I've got to treat some more serious injuries that you two can't handle I'll need a refresher on a few things." He says, making his way back to his bookshelf. As we step outside and make our way to the saloon, Sunny meets us halfway.

"Powder Gangers are coming, be here in around 5 minutes, there's around 10 of them, Cobb included, here's the dynamite Pete said he'd get you, I hope we can make it through this alive." Sunny says, sounding worried.

"Don't worry Sunny, everything will be fine, you get the everyone to covered positions, Delilah, you take these medical supplies and set up in the saloon, you should be able to get some shots out through the windows, but having a place close by that we can take wounded for immediate treatment is going to me more valuable than one extra gun could ever be. I'll head and meet Cobb straight on, if I'm up in his face I should be at more of an advantage since he won't be able to use explosives against me, I've still got the Shovel and the Chopper, so I'll at least be armed for close quarters combat." I say, heading on giving them a signal to move out.

As they head more towards the saloon, Delilah heading inside and getting herself a good position near the front window, and Sunny taking cover behind a couple wooden crates, I move towards the entrance to Goodsprings, with the Shotgun I just acquired loaded and in my hands, and the 10mm loaded and in a holster on my leg. As I get there I see Cobb's gang arrive, they aren't particularly well armed, two of them carry Single shot guns, one carries a baseball bat, one a meat cleaver, the other five carry 9mm pistols and Cobb himself appears to have a .357 revolver. These guys also undoubtedly have dynamite, which is why I decided to move in so close.

"What are you doing here, huh? Acting like some kinda hero for the town?" Cobb jeers at me, obviously his men are bolstered by his bravado as a cheer goes up. It's a shame this guy is a complete and utter asshole, he might've made a good leader.

Pushing those thoughts aside I stand my ground and respond, "Cobb, leave, there's no reason for you to attack these people." I knew diplomacy wouldn't work, but it wouldn't be very becoming of me to just shoot him, I need to draw him in closer anyway.

"Oh please, this town is gonna get burned to the ground, and I think me and my boys are gonna start by beating the shit out of you." Cobb says, in the moment he moves to punch me, and I react accordingly.

Whenever someone attempts to describe what blowing somebodies arm off with a shotgun is like they miss out on some of the finer details, I'm one of those people, so I'll just not even attempt, I will say however, that the arm flew off in a shower of blood and gore, which splashed onto one of his cronies. Cobb died instantly from the attack, probably from blood loss, shock, or some of the shotgun blast managed to catch him in a vital area, I can't tell if this made the rest of the powder gangers panic or just plain angry, because they all started to attack me at once. The good news about that is that the melee fighters they had prevented them from shooting me too much, which is a problem the Goodsprings militia didn't have, in the first few seconds since I killed Cobb, both of the shotgun wielders had been felled by bullets coming from behind me, though it's hard to tell who shot them. The two melee fighters were easy enough for me to deal with, the meat cleaver wielding one joined Cobb in death by shotgun blast, this one blowing his head off, and the one with the bat got a significantly more glorified headshot courtesy of my pistol lining up with his eyes. While I was doing this though, one of the powder gangers managed to actually hit me with a shot, and it went right into my left arm, not exactly ideal, but livable, the closest Powder Ganger to me that was still alive was making a move to grab Cobb's gun to fire at me, I managed to kick it away from him, towards the saloon, and give that man an elbow to the face, he staggered backwards and in his moment of regaining his balance I placed a bullet in his chest, if my knowledge of anatomy is correct and that bullet went through as far as it should have, I've probably pierced his lung, and he's drowning in his own blood. Without time to properly check though I run and duck behind the Goodsprings sign, which while not perfect cover, is more than enough to protect me from the amateurs. Taking a moment to change out my clip for a completely full one, (useful function of the pip-boy I discovered, is that he has the ability to remember both how many bullets I have in my clip, in any specific clip and in total, which is useful) I decide that it is time for me to try VATS, upon activating it how the Pip-Boy told me too, time seemed to slow to a crawl, my movements were slowed, but not by as much as everyone else, which must mean that to them I was moving rather quickly I line up a shot at one of the remaining 3 Powder ganger's heads, as in my moment of taking cover another one of the settlers must have taken one down. The shot goes off and his head explodes and creates a geyser of blood for a second, I switch targets and unload three bullets into the chest of a second Powder Ganger and see him begin to fall. As I was going to fire at the third, time immediately jumps back to normal and the shock of this disorients me long enough to take a second bullet wound, this one to my leg. I manage to ignore it for just long enough to fire three more shots not wanting to take any chances and watch as the last powder ganger falls. I breathe a sigh of relief and give a weak thumb up to the people at the saloon, before limping my way over there and in the door to where Delilah is stationed.

"Angelo! Are you hurt? We won, but you're bleeding, bullet wound, left bicep, secondary bullet wound right calf, both still have metal lodged in them. Lay down, I'm going to get those out and get them disinfected and bandaged up, a stimpack and you'll probably be fine." Delilah says, at first showing concerned before breaking into what I always called "Doctor Mode" doctor mode is the mindset anyone with a significant amount of medical training gets into when they examine someone's physical state, you stop seeing them as a person and only begin to examine the injuries, probable cause, and best course of treatment.

"Yeah, I know, I can probably get the one out of my leg on my own, but I'll need help with my arm." I say.

"I'll get it, you just lay back and try not to heal until I'm done. Okay?" She says before doing something that surprises me, she kisses me, and it's not like a faint peck, she's really into it. I respond, surprised but accepting, then she just freezes, pulls away, mutters an apology that I can't really hear, then proceeds to pull the bullets out of me, before pouring some antiseptic on it, putting a small amount of gauze inside the wound, then covering them with bandages. A stimpack into my chest and I can already feel the wounds healing, by tomorrow I'll probably have to pull the gauze out and simply keep it bandaged, and the day after I'll be healed. I look around and see that the saloon is pretty much empty except for the two of us.

I look to her and ask, "Where are all the other injured?"

"There weren't any others, you sort of dealt with them all before they even turned their attention on us, yeah we killed a few, but they're attention was solely on you, probably because you taunted their boss," Delilah says, blushing furiously.

"So what was with that kiss?" I ask, not the smoothest move I know, but I really wanted to know, it was nice, but I'd like to get to know the girl better first before we move on into that territory.

"A rush of excitement from the fact that we won, as well as a thrill that you made it through alive, I was pretty worried, you're the first friend I've had since Uncle Sulik died, and I didn't want to lose you so soon after I met you." She says before laying her head down against my chest. "The worst part is, after Doc lets you go, you're just going to leave, and I'll still be here, surrounded by people, but still alone."

"Yes, I plan on leaving, I'm obligated to deliver my package, not to mention I need answers, but I'm not going to just leave you, I have an offer, and you should know that you can refuse it, but I'd like you to come with me, you can practice your medicine from patching me up every time I get into a fight, which trust me, happens a lot. I can also get you some more medical training from other doctors around the wasteland. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in? I'm not the biggest fan of travelling alone." I say, hoping to calm her down, while I hadn't considered bringing her with me before, thinking she wouldn't want to leave the safety of her home to go gallivanting across the wastes with some stranger, this thought does appeal to me. I like this girl, she's fun, intelligent, and has a bright future ahead of her. I'd love to be able to contribute to her success in some way, even if it's only a little.

"Do you really mean that? Do you want me to go with you?" She asks, looking up to me, her eyes wet with unshed tears.

"If you want, I'm warning you, it's not going to be easy, I'll do everything I can to keep you safe, but as you can probably guess, trouble seems to find me wherever I go." I say seriously.

"Then I'll do it, someone needs to make sure that you can get your ass home." She says, before giving me another kiss, this one shorter. "That's to give you something to keep living for, who knows, maybe you'll grow on me enough you'll get more." She stands up and walks away, with a sway in her hips that wasn't present before.

Why are women so confusing?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: They Went That-A-Way

 **AN: Admittedly not much happens in this chapter, it covers a very uninteresting portion of the game but it is a necessary one. Hopefully you enjoy it nonetheless. Be sure to review!**

Pushing my thoughts aside I went outside shortly after to go check and make sure everyone in town was fine. Delilah turned out to be correct in saying I was the only person who managed to get injured in any way, well, Ringo fell and scraped his knee, but that's manageable.

"Here, the star caps I promised you, as well as some normal caps." Ringo says handing me two separate bags. "I know I kind of implied I couldn't really pay you, those are technically Crimson Caravan funds, but they'll understand when I tell them what happened, they are okay with hiring outside help when under extreme circumstances."

"Well thanks, what are you going to be doing now?" I ask, wondering about his plans.

"I'll be here for a bit, then join up with a caravan to head back to the main Vegas branch whenever one comes by, I'll radio in to tell them what happened, I'll mention you as well so if you're ever in that area they'll welcome you in."

"I appreciate it Ringo, try to stay safe alright?" I say, placing a hand on his shoulder. He nods his head and chuckles slightly, before walking off and being pulled in by Sunny. She kisses him very deeply and I laugh at him. I sympathize with him, women are weird, but we can't help but love them.

I wave and cheer with the various other settlers before heading up to Doc Mitchell's place. As I enter I tell Doc the good news and then get to business, "Am I allowed to leave now? I would enjoy being able to move on, I like it here, but if I don't get my package back, I'm going to get mercenaries sent after me."

"Well, I'd planned to keep you for at least a week to make sure you could function properly, but you've exceeded all my expectations for what you'd be capable to do after that injury, Delilah also told me she's going with you, so I'll let you go, after you come for a check-up tomorrow, I've got to review some mental tests and then I'll attempt to make sure all of your higher brain functions are active. After that I'll leave your care in Delilah's hands. She'll bring you to me if things get too bad." Doc says, pulling a few books from his shelf. "Here's a couple of things for you to take with you, mainly medical texts and basic supplies for Delilah, as well as a radio transmitter that sends signal back here, I'd go talk to Trudy for a bit, she radioed up here when she saw you heading this way saying for me to have you see her, seemed kind of important." He says, handing me a few texts and a messenger bag.

"Thanks Doc, I'll make sure to get these to her and go see Trudy, I'll see you in the morning." I say as I walk out. I see Trudy speaking with Ringo and Sunny on the porch of the saloon. I head over there and greet everyone.

"Hey there, thanks for what you did, I doubt that would've worked if you weren't here, we've been talking and we've decided to give you the keys to the gas station. Ringo'll be staying with Sunny for what time he's left here, and we want you to feel like Goodsprings is your home. So here." Trudy hands me a keyring that has three keys on it, each is labeled. "The one that says main is to the front door, one of them says basement, there's a small compartment in the wall that has a switch that opens a large basement, it should have plenty of storage space in there, and one of those is to the garage door. I think we've got a couple scrap robots in there, trade from old caravans that wanted water, we used to have an old mechanic here who worked with him, but he kicked the bucket before he could get em' running, their yours if you get them going."

"Thanks Trudy, this means a lot." I say.

"Consider it thanks for saving our skins, you've got to clear the place out yourself though, I doubt you want all those shelves taking up all the room in the main building. If you need it, we can probably get some extra furniture traded in, Paul Pembroke knows a guy."

"Shouldn't be a problem, I'll need something to keep myself occupied for the rest of the day, Doc's not letting me leave till tomorrow." I say, before waving goodbye and heading toward Delilah's house.

As I enter I notice her packing a few things, I unload the messenger bag Doc gave me onto a nearby table and speak up, "Hey Delilah, I see you're getting ready, Doc says I can leave tomorrow, so after that, whenever you are ready we can leave, I'll be up at the gas station if you need me, Trudy gave me the place so I'm going to be clearing it out."

She stops and turns to me, "Do you want me to help? I'm going to need a place to stay too, after dad and Uncle Sulik died someone else actually bought this house, they don't come through that often so they have allowed me to stay here in exchange for keeping the place maintained, they radioed in today saying that they were coming back and staying permanently, something about being stationed here to watch over the town." She says, digging her toes into the carpet shyly.

"You're more than welcome to stay with me, we'll be travelling together anyway. I'll just get an extra mattress from one of the abandoned trailers, there are a few lying around." I say, before helping her finish packing her bags and leading her to the gas station.

As we enter the place is a total mess, but it's no different from when I was in here with Ringo. There are four shelves, one of them tipped over, and a bunch of junk I need to move out of here. Telling Delilah to just start trying to tidy up some of the smaller things I get to work moving the shelves.

Let me tell you that gas station shelves are lighter than you'd think they'd be, but still plenty heavy. With a bit of shoving, pushing, begging and smashing with an old sledgehammer I found in the garage, I managed to get all of the shelves outside and into a nice pile behind the station. The wonderful thing about these shelves is that they are wooden, so they'll be easy to dispose of by just setting them on fire. There were a few random items that were scattered along the shelves, mostly junk like empty bottles and bent tin cans. I keep the bottles, they can be reused for useful things, but trash the cans. I also found a few full bottles of Sunset Sarsaparilla, which I loaded into the machine outside that I managed to fix, so now it is refrigerating them. A few magazines were also scattered about, those are interesting reading material mostly, so I store them in a crate that was lying around and place it on the counter. I find the trapdoor to the basement easily enough and Trudy was right, it is plenty big and has plenty of storage space, there are at least six different off-shooting rooms, each with enough space to hold two beds should I desire to, and already having two lockers inside of each. In the main room there are six lockers, two footlockers and two trunks sectioned off against a wall, with a workbench and a reloading bench on either side. In front of that wall is a large table/counter top, and lining the various walls are shelves that are barren, but are perfect for displaying anything I desire to pick up on my journey. I'm a bit of a collector, and while there is little rhyme or reason to what I collect, it is typically just things I find interesting and enjoy having. I place the first item I've collected in my journey on a shelf, a .357 pistol, looted from the body of Joe Cobb, while I could probably get a few caps for the weapon, I like having it as a trophy, I managed to get quite a few caps for the other items I took from the powder gangers anyway. / **AN: Just assume that he loots and sells everything a normal player does, I doubt it would be interesting reading about him combing through bodies and haggling with traders, as a point, he does also buy supplies "off-record" so he consistently has food and water.** / I head back upstairs and find that Delilah has tidied the place up nicely, and has even brought a toolbox inside from the garage.

"As much as I enjoy sleeping on a mattress on the floor and all, do you think you can go ask Paul Pembroke if he has a couple spare bedframes? I know he used to just haul medal ones off for scrap, so he might have one or two lying around." Delilah says, I realize she has a point, and this place could do with some more furniture anyway. So I nod to her and head to the place I had seen earlier called "Pembroke Repairs".

"Dean, hand me that 9/16ths wrench will ya?" A voice says with a thick southern drawl from inside the building, I knock a few times on the door and it opens to reveal a ghoul, with green marks on his skin.

"Can I help you?" He asks, the name on his jumpsuit says Dean, so I can guess that this is the Dean the other man was yelling for earlier.

"Yeah, I'm Angelo, I was wondering if you had some bed frames for sale, Delilah said that you typically use them for scrap, so I wondered if you might've had a couple you hadn't junked yet." I say, trying to get out of there as quickly as possible, it sounds like they are working hard on a project and I don't want to disturb them.

"Come on in, I'll have to ask Paul, I'm Dean by the way, even if we don't though we might be able to make a suitable one in a few minutes with some of the scrap we have around here." He says, leading me inside. Immediately it becomes clear that this is both where the pair of them live and work, and they value their work more than their luxuries, as off in one direction I can see a kitchen that has two naval cots hanging from the wall, with the rest of the building being devoted to a workshop, with various pallets and signs scattered about. "Hey Paul, we've got a customer looking from some bed frames, we got any spare?"

"Dean? Hold on a second." A man with a very white beard appears from underneath a truck. "Oh, howdy, you're looking for a bed frame?"

"Two or more if you've got them." I say, I can tell this guy probably means well and is pretty busy, a few people have taken their crack at fixing one of the vehicles that litter the landscape, and while a few have been successful, they say it was an extreme effort.

"Yeah actually, I think I've got seven or eight in the scrap pile around back, we try to keep them whole when we store them because we can use them as bases for tables, so they should be in alright condition, come on and let's see if we can load it up." He says, pulling me towards the back door.

Sure enough when we make it outside there are eight of them, but they are stacked so as to make a pyramid with one balancing on top. "Dean, you do this?" Paul asks, turning to his ghoulish friend.

"Yes, got bored back before started this most recent project, took me about an hour, pretty impressive right?" Dean says smugly.

"I'll admit I'm impressed, if I didn't need them I'd have said to leave it, but unfortunately I do, how many of them are you willing to sell?" I say, turning to look at Paul.

"I'll give you all eight for 200 caps." Paul says, before wiggling one of the bottom supports, the bedframe on top wobbles and falls down on the opposite side of the pyramid, but the rest stand firm.

"I'll take em," I say as I count the required caps out.

An hour later I have the beds set up, three of the rooms in the basement have two beds in them, and two rooms have only one bed. These rooms are mine and Delilah's respectively, and they are the only ones with mattresses. After lugging those in, Delilah was nice enough to have cooked me dinner, using an oven that we found down here that still worked when we applied power to it. Until I can rig a slightly more permanent solution we've been using Fission Batteries for our power needs, despite their small size, they can produce plenty of electricity. They can power a refrigerator for around one week non-stop, and an oven for around two, depending on usage. If at all possible, I'd like to put some solar panels on the roof for power, one thing the Mojave has more of than it needs is sunlight.

After dinner I say I'm heading to bed, and Delilah follows me in doing so. I wake up the next morning to find Delilah getting ready in the bathroom that I'd found down here. She has this look of concentration on her face as she tries to pull her hair up into her pigtails, as though she's trying to get them exactly right. I chuckle silently before stepping behind her to grab a toothbrush, Doc Mitchell was kind enough to include a few in the medical bag he gave me, saying dental hygiene is a good way to stop yourself from getting sick, getting some toothpaste as well I begin brushing my teeth. After I finish my morning rituals, I head out for Doc Mitchells, where he is ready for me to come in for my last mental health exam. Turns out, he just checks my body's automatic functions, testing my reflexes and eye dilation. He turns me loose under 'medical supervision' from Delilah and we depart, saying our goodbyes to the townsfolk.

"I'm going to miss it here." Delilah says as we pass the sign that marks the entrance to town.

"I will too, but I have to go, and you wanted to come along, we're going to head down I-15 to Primm, then from there it's Mojave Outpost, Nipton, Novac, The 188, Freeside, then The Strip." I say, planning my route in my head.

"Why aren't we just taking it north then? There's only Sloan in the way, and the Super Mutants don't typically come off Black Mountain." Delilah says, curious as to my direction.

"Sloan's a quarry town, and from what reports at the Mojave Outpost said when I entered, Quarry Junction got overrun by Deathclaws once work stopped there. I'm in no hurry to go fight a Deathclaw with what I've got now." I say, defending my choice, at this point we've made it far enough south that the we can see the wells where Goodsprings draws water from behind us, a man with dark hair stops us on the road.

"Can you help me?" He asks, pathetically, not me calling him pathetic, it's just the way his voice is coming out of him.

"Sure, what's the problem?" I say, one of the things I hold myself to is that I'll never turn down someone in need of help.

"My girl's been trapped by geckos on the ridge, and I can't help her, can you save her for me?" He asks, pointing to a ridge to our right.

"Sure, come on Delilah, let's go save somebody." I say before grabbing my Chopper out of storage. Delilah follows closely behind me, pulling a baseball bat off of her back.

The trek up the ridge wasn't particularly difficult, we encountered a few Geckos but Mrs. McCoy's Chopper makes quick work of them, I almost wonder why she even needed my help in the first place. As we make it to the top we notice a large pile of bones with some half eaten flesh strewn about them, we also find a chair with a table, a few bear traps, a fridge, and an ammo box. As we turn around to tell the man at the bottom of the hill the bad news, we see him running up the hill.

"Thanks for clearing out the geckos now I can get to that stash up there, after I kill you two of course." He says, before pulling out a 9mm pistol.

I've always hated guys like this, and take great pleasure in taking them down, what is wonderful about the situation he decided to attack me in is that I'm about three feet higher up than he is, while only being around ten feet in front of him. One running jump lands my Chopper right into his collar bone with all the force of my fall and a quick draw and spin has my 10mm in his face. One pull of the trigger and I can see through the hole in his head.

"Well, that was a setup, might as well see what he was willing to kill us over." I say, before turning to head back up the mountain, Delilah follows behind, after checking the man's corpse for anything useful, beyond his pistol and some ammo, there wasn't anything exciting. Opening the fridge, I found little that was too exciting, some Nuka-Cola, Sunset Sarsaparilla, Whiskey and clean water, but the ammo box proved interesting. In there I found a grenade rifle, that'd been folded in half at its loading mechanism, and some grenades that were to be loaded into it, not a bad find in all honesty.

As I show Delilah what I found I notice that she seems to be a little uncomfortable, I ask what's wrong. "I've never really traveled in the wasteland before, I knew things like that happened, but didn't think anything of it, to actually have it happen, that someone who asked for help and would then kill those who tried to help him, it's just sickening to me." She says.

"I know, but not all people are like that, that guy was just an asshole." I say, hoping to quell her fears, I guess it worked as she seemed to be re-assured by it and we continued moving south.

Not too long after than we came to the Interstate and a place called "Jean Sky Diving" going in revealed the place to be abandoned, with nothing of real note inside, except for a single star cap for my collection. I've got 11 now, and hope I can find some more later. Before we step back outside we hear a voice from out back, only hearing it through one of the many holes in the wall.

"You hear about that courier who killed Cobb when he tried to attack Goodsprings?" one voice asks

Another replies, "Yeah, he's meant to be heading this way, think one of the higher-ups'll pay some good money for his head?"

"I hope!" A third one replies.

Sneaking a glimpse out of one of the holes in the shack I do see three Powder Gangers, standing by a plane that I imagine this place used pre-war. I whisper to Delilah "More Powder Gangers you okay with taking them out?" She nods.

I creep outside and move around the shack, it's morning so I don't have the advantage of having the sun in their eyes from my position I'm on the wrong side, but they don't appear to be paying much attention. I pull my Varmint Rifle out of storage and line the sights up on one of the powder gangers heads, one pull of the trigger and he falls, the other two are on alert now, they know someone is here, they just aren't too sure where. I set my sights on the second and put another bullet in his head, I go to reload my gun and the third sees the metal glint in the sunlight, he pulls his varmint rifle and begins shooting at me, meanwhile, my gun has jammed and it's taking me time to fix it, I'm dodging left and right to try to make his shots miss when I hear a loud bang, and he falls, turning I see Delilah holding her revolver and see it's barrel smoking. "You're welcome." She says smiling. We loot the three bodies and head south to Primm which we can see on the horizon.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: They Didn't Shoot the Deputy

 **AN: Fun times in Primm this chapter, as well as a new OC, I know I said that I wouldn't make them companions, but I actually kind of like this one, so give me some feedback as to whether or not you'd like her to stick around, I have an idea for how to deal with both options.**

As Delilah and I approach the town of Primm an NCR Trooper halts our progress. "Halt, this town has been overrun by convicts escaped from NCRCF, we can't let you pass for the moment." He says, gesturing to the town proper.

"May I speak to your commanding officer?" I ask, being civil, this guy's face is familiar to me, I might've been in training with him, maybe.

"Lieutenant Hayes is in the tent on this side of the road, Sergeant McGee can point you to the right one when you get to them."

"Thank you," I say, saluting him before walking in the direction of the tents, I see a few more troopers stationed about, nothing unusual for NCR controlled areas, though there are fewer than I would expect to be holding a place as vital on the I-15 as Primm. Finding the Lieutenant's tent I knock on the metal door before being allowed in. "Excuse me Lieutenant, I heard you were having difficulties with convicts in the town, may I ask your situation sir?" I say, standing at attention, I'm not a trooper in training anymore, so this guy technically doesn't have rank on me, but when you've had drill instructors like mine, simply not being in the military does not mean that you stop respecting your higher-ups.

"Convicts from NCRCF started occupying the town after they staged a coup at the prison, they got organized far quicker than we thought, but this group seems to be an offshoot of the main ones that still hold the prison, so they aren't getting reinforcement, we just don't have the extra men or firepower necessary to retake the town." Lieutenant Hayes says, obviously appreciating my demeanor. "What's' your rank soldier?" He asks.

"Civilian, removed from service due to insubordination, disobeyed my C.O. when he ordered me to punish one of my fellow troopers for deserting, they didn't desert, they missed roll call because they were using the restroom. I refused all the way up too Major before they decided to punish me, after I just took their beating without saying a word, they decided to just forcefully discharge me, thinking they could scare me into obeying. I took my pension and left." I say, still maintaining my composure.

"At ease, I've got no sway over you, and under my command you would've been immediately made Corporal or Sergeant for that display." He says, shaking my hand. "So what are you doing in Primm?"

"I was delivering a package for the Mojave Express when I was ambushed by a man in a checkered suit, and his two hired Great Khan bodyguards. He shot me twice in the head and then took my package and left me for dead. With everything I've been able to gather, he's likely to have headed this way to get to Vegas, with the rest of I-15 shut down because of Deathclaws." I explain, loosening up slightly.

"I've seen nobody matching that description but I've been pre-occupied, do you think you can provide some assistance here though? We'd be happy to 'lose' some supplies in a place that they can be easily obtained by a civilian." He says, following standard NCR procedure by asking for help in exchange for mysteriously vanishing supplies. It's harmless for the NCR and even up to Captain they are okay with it, most Colonels are as well, but since they are typically actually allowed to give contract work they don't have to worry about it, General Oliver is aware that it happens, and is for the most part powerless to stop it.

"I'd be happy to help, what do you want me to do?" I say, volunteering to help, one of the things me and Delilah ended up talking about on our journey here is my desire to help people, and I said that I was likely to volunteer myself for any mission that someone gives me, unless it is something that directly conflicts with my morals, such as killing an innocent, Delilah was okay with that, and said she'd help.

"I'd like you to make contact with the civilians held up in the Vikki and Vance, then if at all possible, infiltrate the Bison Steve hotel and take down the leader of this band of convicts, I believe his name is James Baker, an old raider who had a tendency to horrifically burn victims with an old incinerator he found. I think he's found another so watch out for that. My advice is if you see him, get in close, that gun is big, heavy, and meant for long range use." He says, before laying out a crude map of town. "Besides a few men they have stationed on top of the roller coaster, they've got 3 men patrolling the town proper, one that keeps himself in front of the Vikki and Vance, one in front of the Bison Steve, and one that patrols the area here that used to hold the sheriff's office."

"Got it, any idea of the numbers on the inside?" I ask, pointing to the Bison Steve on the map.

"Our best estimates put it at around 20, I'm sorry I have to ask you to do this, but this isn't a situation I'm authorized to deal with, if I had another squad I might be able to do it. Since I don't though I'm afraid I can't offer much in the way of support."

"Actually sir, permission to accompany them in this mission." A trooper says, stepping out from the corner, she's definitely younger, probably around 22, and wears the standard NCR Bandoleer armor, without the Trooper Helmet. On her back is the standard issue 5.56 Service Rifle as well as a small duffle, designed for maximum storage to size ratio. On her hip is a 9mm pistol, and strapped to her rather ample chest is a combat knife. "Private Ashley Beagle reporting for duty!" She says before saluting the lieutenant.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I can't officially commend you for your service, and if something were to happen to you I'd have to say you went AWOL beforehand." He says, obviously attempting to dissuade her from doing so, nothing wrong with trying to keep one of those under your command safe.

"Yes Sir! I've been waiting for an opportunity to help out for a while. I'm from here originally, and it pains me to see my home in such a state." She says, before taking a deep sigh. "In order to make this an easier decision for you here, this place means more to me than any military salary." She says handing him a small stack of papers.

"These are your resignation forms, are you sure about this?" He says, looking at the stack of papers in his hands.

"Definitely, I joined up to help my homeland, not for the money." She says shooting him a smile. She turns to me, "If you can help me save my town, I'll be more than happy to accompany you to look for your friend in the suit."

Turning to Delilah and receiving a nod from her I welcome her aboard. We sit for a second to decide a game plan, deciding the best way to get by is to sneak around the gas station towards the guard posted by the Sheriff's house, then dealing with the two guards on the main road from behind the cover that is provided by the various buildings and destroyed cars.

As we leave and head that way we come across the first problem, the bridge was mined by the convicts, and I'm not risking either Delilah or Ashley just trying to cross a bridge, so I tell them to wait and steel myself. Disarming frag mines is surprisingly easy, there is a series of switches on top of the device that are meant to be how you set the mine, one of them is the primary charge switch and if you can manage to flip it and one other quick enough you can disarm a mine, the only problem is, you have to hold the bottom of the mine while you do it, putting it in prime position for it to unload a nice package of shrapnel right into your face. I've gotten plenty of practice though, my NCR training included both setting and disarming mine courses, so typically as long as I can see it beforehand I can typically deal with it pretty effectively. Taking a quick breath, I run to where the first mine is and disarm it as quickly as possible. I manage to do so before the timer is anywhere close to ticking down, and do it for the other two without too much issue.

Waving the girls to follow me we make our way toward the alley where we were told the guard was stationed and we spot him, he's facing away from us, looking in between two houses, and if the sounds he's making are any indication, he's… releasing himself onto the ground. I have the girls hold position and take the knife from Ashley's chest, she gives me a strange look and I shoot her an apologetic look and sneak my way over to the guard and quickly slit his throat. I check his body for anything worthwhile, then wave the girls over, giving Ashley back her knife. Moving onward to the corner I make out the two other guards, I pull out my pistol and point Ashley to the farthest convict and have Delilah ready to take out which ever doesn't go down after this first shot. A quick three-count and Ashley and I fire at the same time. Her convict goes down in one shot, while mine requires a second. Looting their bodies yields me a Trooper Helmet, which I quickly clean off and place on my head, as well as a few weapons to sell. Glancing around town I see the Mojave Express office with a body in front of it, moving quickly over to it I recognize who it is, one of the couriers who signed on with me. I notice the bullet hole in his head and feel a strange kinship with the man, Delilah and Ashley point out to me a figure on the roller coaster and taking a glance through the scope I put on my Varmint Rifle I see it to be another convict, a well-placed shot to the base of the skull sends him tumbling to the pavement, if he wasn't dead before, he's dead now. Turning my attention to the opposite side I see another convict, another shot and I manage to knock him down as well, but he is still on the coaster. I fire another shot and make sure that he doesn't survive. I step into the Mojave Express office and immediately notice an eye-bot resting on the counter. Glancing around the building I find it completely empty and make my way out.

As I quickly move to the Vikki and Vance I'm immediately getting around ten weapons pointing at me. "I come in peace!" I scream throwing my hands up.

"You chose a bad time to come to Primm stranger." An old man obviously of African-American descent says to me.

"Maybe so, but it seems obvious you need my help, and I could use some information, let's start off with introductions. I'm Angelo, a courier, was hired by the Mojave Express." I say, lowering my hands.

"Name's Johnson Nash, trader and owner of the Mojave express branch here in Primm." He says, lowering his gun and motioning for everyone else to do the same.

"What's with the eyebot in your office if I may ask? I stopped in there to see if anyone was around and just saw it on the counter." I say, trying to gather some information, anything related to the Enclave is pretty rare out in the wastes ever since that oil rig blew up.

"Courier brought it in, planned to sell it for scrap but then the Gangsters took over, if you can get it up and running it's yours, maybe you can get some use out of it." He says, before lighting a cigarette, I feel a small amount of anger boil inside me, but pass it down, if there is one thing that really bothers me, it's someone smoking.

Despite my relatively good endurance and running ability I actually have a really hard time breathing, a lung defect from when I was born, before I was shot I kept around a breathing mask for when I needed to travel to places with thinner or more polluted air. I don't really have that luxury now, so just seeing the smoke wafting in the air near me I feel my chest tighten. It'd be rude to ask him to put it out, and it's his right to do it. I pull my shirt over my face and continue speaking. "Okay, I've been tasked to go and deal with the cons inside the Bison Steve, before I head over there I'm going to see if I can do something about that robot, maybe get it up and running."

"While you're in there try to get our Deputy out of there, name's Beagle, bit of a coward, but currently the only lawman in the town." He says, before blowing a big cloud of smoke out of his mouth. I begin to panic and bust out of the casino, before taking in a large breath and releasing one I didn't even know I was holding. Delilah follows shortly after me.

"What's wrong? I've never seen you act like this before." She asks, concerned, Ashley steps out behind her and also shows some sympathy on her face, but seems pre-occupied with something.

"I'll tell you later, it's not a big deal for the moment, Ashley, isn't your last name Beagle?"

"Yeah, that Deputy is probably my brother, didn't know he got taken hostage, thought he was just held up in the casino as well. Bro's a complete wimp, only made deputy because Sis married the Sheriff, but he's family so now I'm concerned." She says, staring very hard at the doors to the hotel.

"We'll get him out, don't worry, until then however, let's see if we can't get that eyebot up and running, looks like it had a laser mounted on it, having that around would be pretty useful, and I just love those things, always wanted to reprogram one to follow me around." I say, getting excited before making my way back to the Mojave express office.

There are a few pieces of scrap metal and electronics lying around and with my knowledge of fixing things and robotics I manage to get the little guy up and running, I find a model number on him and it lists him as Eyebot D-Frame Prototype E, and with the license plate that's welded to his frame, I decide to call him ED-E (pronounced Eddie). "ED-E run protocol, follow. Attack targets deemed hostile to this company, consisting of the three individuals you see before you. Set commanding officer to me, and set all voice activation protocols to me as well. Do you have the ability to interface with my Pip-Boy?" I ask, knowing that Eyebots have a beep code that is pretty easy to understand, something about trying to emulate some pre-war movie robot. I get a positive response and then I get a connection in my head, there's something odd about essentially being able to control something with your thoughts, I essentially set it to just make its decisions without me, but obey my mental and verbal commands.

Afterwards we head our way into the Bison Steve and are immediately attacked, two cons are stationed behind a barrier of tables. Between the four of us however they are gunned down very quickly. From this we do notice something however, sound seems to dissipate in the Bison Steve, the bullets we just fired should've been heard by everyone in the hotel, but my compatriots were the only ones who even heard my shots. We decide that that is a good thing and begin our creep through the establishment. As we enter the hallway we immediately find five more goons milling about in the area between the gift shop and the elevator. They aren't all grouped together, but three of them are sitting around a table, appearing to be playing poker. The other two are having a conversation off to the side. I whisper to my companions that I plan to use my Grenade Rifle to kill the three at the table, and I need them to throw some dynamite at the two on the far side of the room. Handing them the dynamite we put the plan into action having them throw the dynamite as I shoot the table, which shatters under the force of the explosion, killing the three cons around it with shrapnel and splinters, the two cons on the other side don't fare much better, as the dynamite explodes before they even have a chance to notice it, killing them instantly. A quick gathering of their items doesn't net anything interesting, but while searching the gift shop I do find a Vault-Tec Bobble Head, this one for endurance. One thing many people don't know about the Bobble Heads is that they contain a chip that slots into the Pip-Boy, this allows authorization for the Pip-Boy to send pulses through the body that improve various physical attributes, over time, this bobble-head will improve my cardio-vascular system, but will unfortunately be unable to help my breathing problem.

Moving more into the hotel we find the main dining room, where there are three convicts, one holding a large incinerator. That would be our target, we thankfully haven't been spotted yet, so I relay a plan to my companions. I'm going to just walk in guns blazing from the door farthest from where we can see the kitchen is. While I have the group distracted they are going to sneak through the other door and make their way into the kitchen, from there they are going to take pot-shots at the cons, while I maintain their focus on me, with my arsenal I should be seen as the bigger threat, we get into position and I reload my Grenade rifle, while getting my shotgun at the ready for a quick switch. If I'm lucky, the Grenade will take out one of them, while I can rush my way to the boss. I take a deep breath before kicking the door open and shooting a grenade directly in the direction of one of the convicts, the second I hear the explosion go off I bolt for the boss while quick-drawing my shotgun. I manage to get close enough to him that he can't accurately fire his weapon and hit him in the face with the butt of my shotgun, I feel a couple bullets hit my back from the other convict, but a tactical vest I got from Cobb manages to save me from penetration, a quick blast from my shot gun explodes the head of Baker and I throw down my shotgun before drawing my pistol, I manage to fire off a shot before his head explodes to a yell of "Tango Down!" from Ashley, with those three dealt with, and no more to be seen in the immediate area, I grab my weapon and head over to the kitchen, where I find Delilah and Ashley staring at a man who is tied up on the floor.

"This your brother Ashley?" I ask looking at him, he appears to be older than Ashley by a significant amount, at least by 20 years, and he is wearing the standard leather armor design that has been developed by the wasteland.

"Yeah, this is Marty, my worthless brother." She says, kicking the man lightly in the leg.

"Well, I am most certainly overjoyed to see you again my wonderful sister, and am offended at your observation and opinion of my abilities." The tied up deputies says, his vernacular is odd to say the least, my best guess is that he found a thesaurus and decided to live by it.

"Regardless of your opinion of the man, we should get him out of here, untie him and lead him outside, I'll get the stuff off of these guys." I say, before heading into the large room again and taking what I can from the bodies. Besides Baker's incinerator, the other two didn't have much of any particular interest. One had a bandana that I confiscated to use as an impromptu breathing mask until I can find a better replacement. Double-checking every other body, I still find little more than weapons to sell to the nearest trader, nothing particularly worth keeping around on a long journey.

I step back outside and make my way to the Vikki and Vance, and find Delilah and Ashley speaking with Beagle and Nash, I put the bandana on as a balaclava and get closer. Delilah turns to me and says, "Good news, Beagle saw the guys who attacked you, said they were heading through Nipton to Novac on their way to Vegas, something about seeing a friend while they were there."

"And while we realize that now that you have this information, we could still use your help around here, since these gangsters killed our Sheriff, and Beagle here is less useful than an actual beagle, we could use your help in finding a new lawman, between us, we managed to discuss a few options. First there is an old Sheriff of some other town who got locked up in NCRCF for vigilantism, if you could get his pardon and convince him to come here, that'd be a good idea. Second, is that the NCR could take Primm under their jurisdiction, while I'm not big on paying the taxes, the extra business being a safe NCR town might be worth it. Third, Primm Slim over there is a police-model protectron meant to be used as security for the casino while also being a good greeter, he's probably not the best option, but is still better than nothing." Nash says, essentially playing all of his cards on the table.

"I'll do it," I say, it'd probably be pretty good to have this town on my side, and more friends never really hurts.

"What's your plan?" Nash asks.

"I'll do all three, now can one of you get me a terminal? I've got about 4000 lines of code to write to make one bad-ass RoboCop."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Keep Your Eye on The Prize

 **AN: This chapter was originally going to cover all of 'My Kind of Town' but it ended up being too long, so I cut it and chose a different ending point instead, that should be finished up next chapter, so don't worry it will be done. We introduce another companion and love interest in this chapter. Be sure to review! I'd love to have your guys's feedback. I do read every review (all one of them so far) but there could be 100 and I'd still read every single one. I'd like to know what you guys want out of this story as well.**

Eight hours and 25,000 lines of code later Primm Slim is successfully reprogrammed to be a lawman, though not a sheriff, I'll let someone human take over that position. Primm Slim also gained some new hardware, as Johnson Nash had a recharger rifle lying around and I was able to replace one of his hand lasers with that. So now there will never be an issue of him ever needing his energy cells replaced, just fission batteries every once in a while, but a man who called himself Steve, said that he knew a guy who could keep a steady supply of those rolling in. With everything appearing to be fine on that front, Ashley, Delilah and I make our way back over to the NCR encampment and deliver the good news.

"So you killed Baker, and ten of the escaped cons on the first floor." Hayes says, accepting our information. He then 'drops' a standard issue NCR duffel bag, which contains a Service Rifle, a few Frag Grenades, several clips of 5.56 ammo, an NCRMP helmet which replaces my standard Trooper helmet since I think it looks cooler, and (possibly most exciting to me) a small breathing mask, it is in reality a small respirator that simply inserts into my mouth and is meant to help one breather underwater for short periods of time, but for me, it means that I can actually breathe when there are people smoking, or if it's dusty. It takes almost everything in me to not hug the man after I see he provided me with that, and I attach it to my dogtags that I still have from my time in the service, I guess the man who shot me decided to let me keep them.

"That is correct sir, and thank you, you have no idea how much I needed that respirator." I say, shaking his hand.

"I radioed McCarran to make sure you weren't lying to me, they told me about your little breathing problem and said that you typically carried a respirator on you to help with that, since you didn't have one I figured you needed a new one, and like I said, you would've been commended under my command for your actions." Hayes says. "So, is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"Yes actually. With Primm's primary law gone, I'd like to propose some ideas that I think may be beneficial to everyone. Primm is in need of law, and a constant presence of it with replacement if the need arises, there is an old Sheriff who was locked up in NCRCF who would be a good candidate for the Sheriff here, and before you ask, his crimes were vigilantism, trying to speed up law because he thought it was simply too slow and too many criminals got away. I would also like the NCR to take control of the town and install officers. I've already reprogrammed a protectron that they had in town to act as a lawman, so you don't need a terrible number of troopers to hold the place. Primm is a major stopping point on I-15 and would be incredibly advantageous for the NCR to control. My suggestion is for the NCRCF Sheriff to be the Sheriff of the town, and assign a few troopers to maintain a capable force in the area, if Mojave Outpost's situation is as Mr. New Vegas has reported, you could have a commander train troops here, that would give them experience while simultaneously keeping the town safe. This also allows the town to maintain its sense of independence in having their own Sheriff to decide town laws and punishments separate from the NCR. I believe this to be the best solution all around." I say, explaining my ideas.

"Huh, that'd work out pretty well actually, the constant movement of troops between Primm and Mojave Outpost would also keep that stretch of I-15 pretty clear too." Hayes agrees. "You'll have to head to Mojave Outpost and speak with Major Knight, he's in charge of troop deployment from there. I'll write a letter saying that my company can maintain our current objective, with Sergeant training troops to act as defense, as well as giving my credence to your plan. You'll also need to get that Sheriff's pardon, but that shouldn't be too difficult, vigilantism while illegal, is not too uncommon that people really care."

After a few minutes, and signatures from the entire company and the town of Primm, my group heads south to the Mojave Outpost to deliver the news, we can see the Ranger Unification statue from our current position, as well as a girl lying in the middle of the road, surrounded by unruly characters, she is trying to drag herself away, but appears to be unable to do so. My inner hero speaks up and my new Service Rifle makes an appearance, delivering a bullet to the back of one of their heads and focusing their attention on me. Ashley pulls her Service Rifle and begins firing while Delilah pulls out the Varmint Rifle I gave her and joins in. To be new to working together, we manage to coordinate better than some military units, I call that ED-E and I will fire at the middle section, while Delilah takes the right and Ashley the left. Our coordinated attack scatters the would-be assailants, that Ashley identifies as Viper gang members, and begins to drive them away. We continue our assault and with their backs to us, they no longer are able to completely dodge our fire, and begin to fall one by one. Before long, they all have fallen, and none remain alive. Delilah and I quickly rush to the girl in the middle of the road.

"Are you hurt? What seems to be the problem?" Delilah and I say in unison, medical training typically puts you in the same mindset, and in emergency situations this works in our favor.

"There was a group before them, they robbed me and shot me in the leg before running off. Those guys came later, I'm pretty sure they were going to rape me before you guys came along. Thank you." She says. It is after this that I truly get a look at her. This woman is gorgeous, with long blonde hair and a very cute face, a fairly ample bust and a nice figure it's no wonder those men wanted her, and a tiny very selfish part of me wants her as my reward for saving her, but I push him aside and let Dr. Angelo get to work.

"You said you've been shot in the leg? Me and my companion here have extensive medical training, will you let us treat you? We have the supplies; we just need a place you would feel comfortable in." I say, believe it or not, when dealing with injuries it is best to do so when the patient is calm and relaxed, not only does it make them more likely to listen to you when you need to tell them something, it also loosens up muscles which is good for removing bullets.

"Yes, my tent is just up the hill, though I can't walk." She says, pointing in a direction. She barely finishes her sentence before I scoop her up gently, and begin to walk in the direction she pointed. In less than a minute I manage to arrive at her tent, Delilah and Ashley right on my heels. Delilah and I then get right to work.

One would think that treating bullet wounds is something incredibly difficult, but for someone with my kind of experience, this is second nature. The first step is to discern the location of the bullet entry, which unfortunately for this girl, meant I had to remove her pants, thankfully I had Delilah with me to help her with it, as I didn't want to risk losing my composure. Having Delilah with me and agreeing probably also helped reassure this girl, making me look less like a rapist and more like a doctor. With the entrance point located, the next stage was to sanitize both the area around the entry point, and the entry point itself. Thankfully, Ashley had a bottle of pure alcohol meant for NCR soldiers to disinfect wounds, so that was useful to have on hand, a small cotton ball dabbed in that was taken around the area, and while she complained of the burning sensation, she remained very calm for that part. Next up is undoubtedly the scariest part for her, the removal of the bullet, luckily for her, it didn't penetrate too deep into her that I would have to make a large incision to get it out, but I still had to make a small one. I administer a sterile does of Med-X to the area around the bullet wound and ask Ashley to go and keep her occupied so she doesn't look down here. Patients always panic when they see anyone try to cut them open, even if it is to help them, so keeping her attention elsewhere is very important. The Med-X is obviously working as I can hear the girl, who has just to Ashley that her name is Willow, begin to slur her words, if only slightly, that should mean that the area around the bullet wound should be completely numb, I take my laser scalpel, which is significantly easier to use than a standard one, and make my small incision, this opens up the wound just enough that I can get some forceps down into the wound to actually pull the bullet out. A quick double check to ensure that the forceps are sterilized, and I then begin the slow process of removing the lead, luckily again for her, the bullet wasn't hollow point, and therefore maintained its form during entry, leaving only one bit of metal in her skin. It comes out nicely before I sterilize the wound once more. A small amount of gauze dipped in the disinfectant is then inserted into the wound, and a bandage is wrapped tightly around it. I then take a moment to inject a stimpack into her leg, attempting to speed up her natural healing process. Within two days she should be all better. I stand up and thank both of my 'assistants' and tell Willow that she can put her pants back on, which she does with some help from Ashley and Delilah. She's still a touch out of it from the Med-X, so we decide to stay here with her in order to make sure she at least begins to recover properly. When I look at my Pip-boy I notice that nighttime is due to approach soon, and suggest that we lay Willow down for the night, and go loot the bodies of the Vipers before the carrions get them. Finding nothing of extreme interest but a Sig Sauer P220, which immediately replaces my old 10mm pistol. It's similar in shape to my 9mm pistol, but with a stainless steel body instead of the black one the 9mm does. With that I hand my old 10mm to Delilah, saying she can use it instead of her revolver if she likes, she declines showing a Casull Revolver that also fires 10mm rounds, seems we need to start stocking up on that a bit more now. We retire after storing all of the loot into the trunk that we have designated for selling items that gets transferred into my Pip-Boy storage area.

The next morning begins with a scream, and I immediately shoot up, to see Willow being very surprised at our presence, how do I know this?

"What are you people doing in my tent!?"

That's how.

"We found you when some Viper gang members tried to take advantage of you after a previous group robbed you and shot you in the leg, we also tended to your leg, so you're welcome for that." I say calmly, she's probably in shock and doesn't remember what happened, short term memory loss is also a common side-effect of Med-X, making you forget around an hour before you were injected with it.

"Oh, well, I guess that's probably true, I do remember getting mugged, and I do feel this bandage around my leg, I don't remember the Vipers though, or you treating me." She says.

"Willow that's a side effect of the Med-X, short term memory loss can happen, it's likely that you simply forgot all of it." I say, hoping that by showing her that I know her name she'll believe me.

"Wow! I guess that really did happen, I do feel worlds better, so thank you!" She says, before giving me a hug. "If you would still help me though, I'd like to get my things back. I remember them talking about meeting up with some Jackals gang members just outside of Nipton, can you help me get my stuff back? I can travel with you as payment if you like, everyone loves company, and you've already got a couple girls following you." She says, it does occur to me that both of my companions right now are female, and I won't tell the girl no if she wants to tag along, company is always nice, as is an extra pair of eyes, but I really don't want to feel like I'm building some sort of harem, that just doesn't seem right.

"If you're thinking he's sleeping with us you can think again, I've been throwing hints his way since we started travelling together and he still hasn't put two and two together." Delilah says, I don't really understand what she means though, she's just joking about that stuff when she flirts with me.

"Really? I could've sworn you two were together!" Ashley says butting in to the conversation.

"That mean he's on the market?" Willow says, eyeing me up. I'm very confused.

"I've got him on reserve, but if you want to give it a try go for it, I like competition, maybe it'll open his eyes." Delilah says before jumping on top of me.

"Okay, I've got no idea what's going on, but we need to be at Mojave Outpost pronto, then head toward Nipton to try and get Willow's stuff, after that it's back to Primm." I say, getting up and gathering my things.

"Right!" The three girls say in unison, before also gathering their things.

After a minute's walk to the Mojave outpost we find what used to be an overpass, most of it has now collapsed, and it is now completely overrun by ants. Call me a wimp if you want, but there are only two things that I have seen that truly terrify me, that's Ants and Radscorpions, deathclaws are scary, but that's because of their ferocity and power, ants and radscorpions scare me for an entirely different reason, and I don't know why. I freeze up at the sight of them, and the old adage of 'they smell fear' seems to be true, as they begin charging toward me immediately.

Thankfully, I've got some pretty badass backup, as the three girls and one killer eyebot begin firing on the ants, and after a moment they all stop moving.

"Why'd you freeze up like that? I've seen you face far worse than that and not even flinch, but you can't even move against an ant?" Delilah asks.

"Nothing scares me more than ants and radscorpions, I'll go toe-to-toe with an entire squad of legionnaires before I'll deal with a single one of those. They just terrify me." I say, not exactly the most heroic thing that's ever come out of my mouth, but it is the truth.

"That's adorable!" Willow says before pulling me in for a hug. "There there, those mean mean bugs can't get you no more." She says, in a voice meant for speaking to a baby in.

"It's not adorable, it's a weakness, and I'm not proud of it." I say, pulling away from her. I gulp before running very quickly passed the corpses of the ants and put as much distance between them and myself as possible before my lungs feel like they are about to explode. I put my respirator in and take in the purer oxygen that it provides, before turning to look back at my companions, seeing them just meander passed the creatures like they were little more than a passing inconvenience. They sicken me ever so slightly right now. After they approach me and I give them a very threatening stare, which is met with laughs, we head up the hill to the Mojave Outpost. Once up top we can see it is bustling with activity, and yet no one is heading down I-15. I pull a trooper aside and ask why.

"Ranger Jackson has ordered that heading down I-15 and Highway 95 is too dangerous for caravans right now, and until that clears up, they're stuck here. If you are looking for him or Major Knight, they're in the building closest to the gate, the other is the barracks and bar." The trooper says, before returning to his post of guarding the entrance.

Heading into the building I immediately see a man with a green beret on, which typically means that he's a major. "Caravan, Citizen, or Pilgrim?"

My immediate reaction is to say soldier, but then I realize that I can't say that anymore, so I simply respond citizen. "Just need something for the logbooks, you come from the north?" He asks before laying his pad back down.

"Yes, are you Major Knight?" I ask, pulling out the document I was given.

"Yes I am, I'm in charge of troop deployment for the area, how can I help you?" He responds.

"I'm here for the moment on behalf of the town of Primm, they are in need of law and have asked for assistance, the leader of the town, Lieutenant Hayes and I discussed what we thought was best for the town and we decided that pardoning the old sheriff who was incarcerated in NCRCF and deploying troops to Primm was the best possible option." I say, before handing the signed paper to the Major. He takes it from me and reads it.

"Hmm… this seems sound enough, allows us to give some of the troops around here experience while also keeping I-15 safe, if you can get Jackson to allow troops to move, I'll allow this." He says.

"Thank you sir, the town will appreciate it, now hopefully I can convince Jackson." I say, and said person appears.

"Convince me of what?" A man in ranger attire asks, on his back he carries a .357 repeater, and on his eyes he has a pair of dark aviator glasses.

"To allow troops to head from here to Primm, that'd keep the roads safe for caravans and allow the town to be under NCR protection." I say, hoping to prove my point.

"That roads dangerous, it needs cleared out, there's a big nest of ants at the over pass by here that needs to be wiped out before I could even allow a single troop to move!" He says, maintaining a stern appearance.

"We wiped that out on our way here, as well as a group of Vipers that had been terrorizing the roads. The way to Primm should be for the most part clear." I say, hoping that he believes me.

"Hold on, let me confirm this," He pulls a radio from his belt and converses with someone named ghost on the opposite end of it. "Ghost says you're telling the truth, so I'll allow the troop movement." However, in return you'll need to go to Nipton and report back what has happened there. Ghost has been reporting a large smoke cloud from there and says that it hasn't been sending traders this way."

"You've got it sir; I will do that after I inform Primm of their new situation." I say, saluting him and leaving quickly.

"What happened to running by Nipton before we went back to Primm?" Willow asks, obviously disappointed that we aren't doing so.

"Oh right, I forgot, we'll run that way first then. I've got to think of a plan of how to get into NCRCF and free that Sheriff." I say, showing my forgetfulness.

"Just as long as you remember." Willow says, before punching me lightly in the arm. Refilling on water and food at the bar, which doubles as a trading post, (we also sell off as much of the equipment we can from the Vipers and Convicts we've fought, make a few hundred caps) we head off towards Nipton. Along the way, Delilah sees a group of ants eating the corpse of a giant radscorpions and points it out to me, I tense up and refuse to speak with her for the rest of the trip.

About half-way to Nipton, we arrive at a destroyed building, and from behind it a group of Jackals emerge, their leader is distinguished by his armor, which is a set of military combat armor, and his hair is dyed a very bright lavender. "Well now, if it isn't the little girly we took that dolly from, what did you bring your friends to beat us up to get it back?" He asks condescendingly.

"No, she brought us so I can bury your smug ass." I say as I pull out my new pistol and fire a round directly into his eye. It explodes in a spray of blood and everyone draws their weapons.

There are around five more gang members, all of them wearing leather armor and three of them wielding guns, the other two brandish tire irons. Two of the gun-toting ones have 9mm submachine guns, the other carries a .357 revolver, and they all try to fire on me, luckily they are pretty crap shots and ED-E manages to disintegrate one with his mounted laser. I wheel my pistol back around and fire a few shots in the direction of the other 9mm wielding one and manage to send him collapsing to the pavement dead. I see Delilah use her new revolver and place a nice hole through the head of one of the Tire Iron wielding ones, while Ashley takes the other and stabs him in the throat with her knife. Willow pulls out her gun, a 9mm she calls Shorty, and fires it at the remaining Jackal, and I watch as his throat explodes as the bullet enters it. Looking around I can't see any others, so I reload and holster my gun and loot the bodies of these Jackal members. Willow manages to find a Trail Carbine which she says belongs to her, that has the name Beauty carved into the stock, she also finds a handmade doll, which to me looks kind of creepy, but it appears to make her incredibly happy. Taking what we can from the bodies I find that the leader also had a Machete, which has the words 'A Troubled Past' engraved into the blade, it seems to be a bit faster to swing and easier to maneuver than the Chopper Mrs. McCoy gave me, so I take it.

"Thank you for helping me get these!" Willow exclaims before hugging me and giving me a kiss. "That's a hug and a kiss thank you, and like I said, I'll stick around if you want me to, I've got no real place I'm travelling to except Vegas, and I'm pretty sure you're heading there anyway."

"You're right and you're more than welcome to tag along, as of right now though, we're heading to Primm and then NCRCF to try and find a sheriff." I say, relaying the plan.

"Alright, since we're so close, shouldn't we check on Nipton?" Ashley asks, pointing in the general direction of the town. We continue our walk and I see red. Both literally and metaphorically.

" _ **Legion**_." I seethe, and pull out my shotgun. Either agreeing with me or simply going along with it, the girls pull their weapons out too, and we eventually find the main force, stationed in front of the town hall.

"Hello, as you can see we have dealt with the powder gangers in this town, you are welcome for their removal." A man wearing a fox on his head says. "I am Vulpes Inculta, and I would like you to deliver a message to the NCR."

"I'd like you to deliver a message as well. Tell Satan I brought him a present." I say before I fire my shotgun point blank into his face. I then use my second shot on a nearby legion recruit, before pulling out my P220. I see Ashley using her Service Rifle to fire a few shots into a scout's chest, and Willow firing Beauty and exploding another recruit's head. Delilah is using her revolver to deal with some dogs and I use my pistol to end the rest of them.

After all of the legion fall dead, a collapse onto the ground. Out of mental exhaustion more than anything.

Willow speaks up, "So, we hate the legion. Got it." She then gives a thumbs up and a smile, before looting the bodies.

I'm just sitting on the ground. Trying to calm my rage, nothing can compare to my hatred for the legion. But this is something I'd never thought myself capable of. I never thought I would just wipe out an entire squad, much less one lead by Caesar's top Frumentari. I simply inhale the air, then immediately start choking due to all the smoke in it, I pull on my respirator and just breathe for a moment, before I too start looting bodies, taking Vulpes's Ripper and cutting his head off with it.

Taking off my respirator I ask, "How happy do you think the NCR will be having this asshole dead?"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: A Phantom's Pain

 **AN: Okay, no story progress is made this chapter, it mainly focuses on character building. I hope that everyone is enjoying everything so far, and I hope you don't mind what I'm doing here. As a note, this story will maintain a T-rating (unless everyone really wants it to get pushed up) but I may end up trying to write some smutty scene and placing it in a separate story, although I'm sure my girlfriend will kill me for doing so. This chapter may or may not fill you with emotions, be sure to tell me what emotions you felt and why you felt them. If you would also review, that'd be very appreciated. Big thanks to Paladin Bailey and Tweeden97 for both reviewing and following, and thanks to HayabusaDragonForce for following. I know that Hayabusa was the first follower, and that Bailey was the first reviewer, but I wanted to wait a bit to properly thank all of you, so that way it seemed more genuine.**

With my blind rage subsided and a particularly gruesome reward existing in a bag made from scrap legion armor, we make our way back to Mojave Outpost. The trip itself is uninteresting, and we pass the time by explaining our goals to each other. I talk mostly about my hatred for the legion, and my desire to deliver Caesar's head to General Oliver. Delilah talks about her medical training and her desire to find various books across the wasteland. Ashley mentions that she doesn't really have anything in mind, beyond helping her town, and mentions that she might decide to just stay there after all is said and done. Willow says that she just likes to travel and meet new people, hoping to find someone to settle down with and a place to call her own, she shyly mentions that she likes to collect things and doesn't reveal what or anything else about it. We decide not to push the matter too much further, and Delilah mentions my getting shot in the head. I re-iterate that I am not looking for revenge, answers and my package yes, but not revenge. I do however mention that I may shoot the man, but that's just because I'd probably shoot anyone if they gave me good enough reason to.

Upon arriving at Mojave Outpost we are immediately stopped by a woman in Ranger attire with very pale skin. "What happened at Nipton?" She asks bluntly.

"Legion burned the place to the ground, a party lead by Vulpes Inculta. He wanted me to deliver a message." I then pull out his head. "I don't know what he wanted me to say, so I'll deliver a message that says: Vulpes Inculta is dead, feel free to celebrate and thank your friendly neighborhood legion slaying mailman."

"That's… wow. I'm impressed." She says, showing a look of surprise on her face. "What about the rest of the force?"

"Sharing a similar fate, although they might still have their heads attached to their bodies. No promises on that though." I say.

"I could kiss you right now, that raiding party is far enough west to give us some worry, but you just took down one of their top commanders, that'll deal more of a blow than losing ten squads to us." She says, before radioing Jackson and Knight to come to us. They arrive a moment later. "That, is the head of Vulpes Inculta. This man deserves a fantastic reward."

"As impressive as that is, trooper, put that in one of the Cryo storage boxes so we can send it to McCarren, I can't authorize any reward."

"Knight, you can authorize any singular military personnel of a rank lower than sergeant to a position can't you?" Ghost asks, turning to the Major.

"Yes, I can, what of it?" He says, looking confusedly at the Ranger.

"Ranger Paige 'Ghost' Oliver, requesting reassignment as guard position for former NCR Trooper Angelo Michaels, on grounds of him recently becoming a high-priority target for the legion due to the murder of Vulpes Inculta." She says. I'm beginning to regret my decisions. One woman is confusing enough, two is crazy to think about. Three is suicide, but four? I've pissed off some powerful deity.

"Assignment approved, your new C.O. is M.A. Michaels." Knight says, shaking her hand.

"First off, don't I get a say in this? Secondly, M.A?" I say exasperated and confused.

"You have been declared as a military asset or at least will be once I radio in to McCarren, you've got the approval of three high ranking members of the NCR military forces: Myself, Ranger Jackson, and Lieutenant Hayes. This means that insuring your survival is a priority, lower than holding our positions in the Mojave, but high enough that we can assign a ranger to keep you alive, and with her official request, you disrespect her by denying it, which you haven't done so yet. And fair warning, she may look somewhat dainty, but that woman scares every single person here, well besides Cassidy, but nothing scares her." Knight says looking very serious.

"Fine, I accept." I say, I'm pretty sure I figured out why I survived being shot in the head. Someone wants me to go crazy before I die.

"Good. As of now you are my C.O. which does mean I have to follow your orders, I will however not hesitate to beat your ass to the ground if you give me good enough reason to." She says, putting up a front of stone cold bad-ass, whether or not it's genuine, I've no intention of finding out. "I do however genuinely want to thank you, that Vulpes killed my brother, and while I'm mad I didn't get to put a bullet in him myself, the fact I got to hold his severed head in my hands is enough to satiate me."

"Well then, I hope I don't make you mad." I say, something about her statement about Vulpes killing her brother just doesn't sit quite right with me, although I've got no right to ask her anything about it. Maybe she'll open up later, I seem to be good at making that happen, but I won't push her.

"Well, since you seem to be the newest let's set up the ground rules regarding this thick skulled moron." Delilah says, poking me in the side of the head. I'm not sure why she calls me a moron, according to Vault-Tec and RobCo, I'm on the same league of raw intellectual prowess as Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla. I find my ears covered by a set of firing range ear protectors, which haven't seen much use since before the war. One of the biggest advancements in pre-war weapons technology was the ability to make the discharging of firearms much quieter, apparently before, if you discharged a shotgun without proper ear protection you'd run the risk of permanent hearing damage. They eventually found a way to create a substance like traditional gunpowder that actually managed to muffle the sound of an explosion by redirecting the vibrations that create sound into the actual bullet, which in turn also made bullets travel faster, this allows for 'completely' silent weapons like the .22 pistol I have to exist, that the only sound they make is the firing pin making contact with the bullet, and the whooshing sound of the bullet leaving the gun.

 **(An: This conversation between these author's notes is not heard by Angelo, and exists as both a practice in me trying to write in a different style, and to give you more information as to the thought processes of the other characters. Angelo also doesn't hear this as they don't want him to.)**

"First off, if you decide to try to 'get' with Angelo, be it romantically or intimately, you've got competition. I've been trying since I met the guy, and I'm pretty sure he's not taken any hints." Delilah says, shaking her head lightly.

"Yeah, I'm honestly kind of interested in him as well, we only really met today, but he's definitely someone worth getting to know, not to mention, he's a nice hunk of man meat." Willow adds, glancing over at Angelo, she drags his eyes over his body slowly, as though drinking in his visage.

It's at this moment that Ghost actually takes her first long look at Angelo, and honestly she's impressed with what she sees. He's obviously in pretty good shape, given all the travelling he does, but he's built more like a swimmer than a marathon runner. His legs are obviously pretty well defined, from what she can tell from the holes in the denim pants he's wearing, and he is well chiseled in the chest as well, she can see from the white t-shirt he's wearing, having taken off his jacket and tactical vest to properly deal with the heat that he's experiencing. The shirt clings to his body, sticking to the sweat that comes from doing nearly anything in this desert heat, and it also draws her attention to his arms, which are nice and muscular, but not 'jacked' like some of the legion men she'd seen are. His face is very masculine and angular, with a sharp jawline and pointed nose. His eyes are a striking periwinkle, and seem to be fixated on something in the distance. His hair sits on his head in a bizarre way, with a blond section at the top with darker shaved sections on the side. It seems to have been spiked, but wearing his helmet seems to have flattened it slightly. She notices the breathing apparatus on his neck and raises an eyebrow, unseen by her current company due to her large aviator glasses.

"What's with the respirator?" Ghost asks, turning to her new travelling companions.

"From what we can figure he's got some breathing condition, he needs that if he's around smoke or large amounts of dust." Delilah answers, before adding, "If you've got a smoking habit consider yourself stopping it as of right now, not only does it affect him negatively, but I hate the smell."

"Yeah, I'm not a fan either, I notice he keeps picking up boxes of cigarettes though, not sure why." Willow adds, before deciding that she can take the ear-defenders off of Angelo's head.

(AN: Angelo can hear now, back to his head!)

With my hearing returning to me I realize that I'd been lost in thought, trying to figure out the best plan to get into NCRCF. I turn to the girls and ask: "What were you guys discussing that I couldn't be privy to?"

"Girl stuff that comes with travelling, I'm sure you want to hear all about monthly cycles and feminine hygiene while being on the road right?" Delilah says. I'm extremely grateful that my ears were covered if that's true. "Just before we took your ear protectors off there was a question, why do you keep picking up cigarettes if you can't smoke them or stand anyone smoking them?"

"As much as I hate it, pretty much anyone will pay a good price for these, and they make good trade fodder, a pack of these is pretty much equivalent to about 20 10mm rounds." I say, I've also discovered that in extreme emergency situations, I can use them as a makeshift air filter, it's probably worse for me than just using a cloth, but it's something.

"Fair enough, I've got to gather some things for the road. It's getting late anyway. You guys should bunk here for the night and we'll leave in the morning." Ghost says, before making her way to the barracks. We follow behind her, trusting her judgement, and feeling slight amounts of exhaustion.

It turns out, that the rangers and higher ranking soldiers have their own sleeping quarters separate from the troopers here, the only ones who sleep in here at the moment are Jackson, Ghost, and Knight, but there are extra beds available for us. As we go about our evening routines and prepare for bed, we explain ourselves to Ghost as best we can, and she responds in kind, giving us a few bits of information that I file under the 'useful/interesting' category. Her second cousin is General Lee Oliver, but she made sure no one knew that until after she made ranger, not wanting to be promoted due to family ties instead of skill. She also makes mention of her albinism, saying that it doesn't affect her eyesight as much as it does others, she mentions needing contact lenses to see as well as she needs to for her sniper duties, but says that being in the Military provides her with the means to get those. Jackson and Knight show up eventually as well, and inform me that I have officially been declared an NCR asset, and that the legion has put an exceptionally large bounty on my head, equivalent to 10,000 caps. That fills me with just a small amount of pride that that legion is willing to spend so much money just to see me killed, and that puts a smile to my face thinking of all the legion assassins that I'm going to get to kill.

As happy as I am at my opportunity to shed more legion blood, sleep eventually takes over me and I drift off into a pleasant slumber. That is, until I was awoken. Ghost is rather lucky that I had made sure to not sleep with a weapon under my pillow, because she would've received a new set of lead teeth for waking me up so violently. She makes a motion for me to be quiet and follow her. Despite how little I know her, she's given me no reason so far not to trust her, so I decide it is in my best interest to follow anyway. She leads me to the top of the barracks, where she typically mans the road watch, but there is currently no one there. In fact, no one is really out and about at this time. Ghost speaks up eventually.

"I really do have to thank you for slaying Vulpes, he was a big problem for the NCR, but I feel you need to know why he truly meant so much to me." She pulls out a photo, two pale skinned, white-haired children are sitting on a brahmin, a man with dark hair stands behind them, giving them bunny ears. Everyone is smiling brightly. "I say he killed my brother, but that's not entirely true. Vulpes Inculta killed Peyton Oliver, but you ended the life of the one who was born alongside me." She says, looking particularly downtrodden.

"Vulpes was born Peyton, your brother. Yet he joined Caesar's legion and you two ended up on opposite sides of this war." I observe, trying to wrap my head around this situation.

"Don't get me wrong, that bastard wasn't my brother anymore, but regardless of what they do, you still can't help but love family. I would've personal put the bastard down, but it wouldn't have been easy. For saving me that, I thank you." She leans up and kisses me, before taking my hands and placing them upon her breasts, which are much larger under her uniform then they appear. "From now on, I'm yours, do with me what you want, as you've done more for me than I could ever repay." She leans in for another kiss, but I push her away.

"I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to women, but I do know one thing. What we were about to do isn't something that should be done lightly, it might be sometimes, but it shouldn't." I say, before gathering my thoughts for a moment. "I'm aware of how Delilah and Willow talk, I don't know if they are genuine in actually having feelings for me, or they just enjoy seeing me get flustered about it, but they are wonderful girls that I'd risk my life for. You could join that club as well, given time, but there is one issue. Call me old fashioned, but I want one day to settle down, raise a family. When I do that I want someone that loves me by my side, not that feels they owe it to me. I'm sorry you had to lose a family member, I know that it is arguably one of the most painful experiences anyone can ever go through. Even if you are glad that he's gone, you shared a connection with him that you will never share with anyone else. This is not a proper way to grieve. You can still travel with us if you want, we would love to have you along, and if one day you really want this, we can try. But I want you to want this for you, not out of some sense of obligation. I'm sure you're a wonderful woman Paige, and that you've got a bright future ahead of you, don't sully it by putting a debt you don't owe before your own happiness." I hug her, and turn to walk away, before she grabs my hand.

"I'm going to sleep up here, under the stars, stay with me?" She asks, shyly. I turn to look at her and see the look of defenselessness on her face.

"I'd be happy to." I say, before we lie down and look up at the stars. "Do you know anything about astronomy?"

"No, what's that?" She asks, turning to look at me.

"Astronomy was the study of the stars and planets. It was arguably the first science to ever gain wide-spread popularity, as it was one of the first stepping stones for all of science to discover. Before we had compasses, people determined direction by the placement of the stars in the sky, that one right there," I say pointing a particularly bright star, "Is Polaris, the north star, it was oddly enough, used to point north. It is connected to two constellations, Ursa Major and the Big Dipper, which are formed from the same stars for the most part. Ursa Major is named for its resemblance to a bear, albeit with only one head, and the Big Dipper was named as people thought it looked like a ladle."

"Wow, that's interesting. Where'd you learn this?" Ghost asks, taking an interest.

"I've always loved to learn, I'd read anything I could get my hands on, when I was doing Courier work, I had a policy up front that if I was transporting books of any description, unless they were personal things like journals or logs, I would read them. Most clients were okay with this, since they were mostly sending them off for someone to read anyway. I had one frequent client who ran a library further to the south, he always sent me off with a few books, and said that they weren't expected to be anywhere for well over the time it would take me to travel to wherever I was going. He was a kind old ghoul, had a passion for learning, was a teacher pre-war, though I can't remember exactly what he taught. He eventually was killed by some raiders who thought that a copy of 'Treasure Island' he owned was an actual map to treasure. When I heard of that I told everyone that my deliveries would be late and I hunted down every single one of the bastards who dared to hurt my friend." I say, remembering him fondly.

"You haven't had it easy have you?" Ghost asks, seeming concerned.

"No one has it easy in this world, you simply take the hand you're dealt and roll with it as best you can. Currently, I'm in the process of bluffing my opponents to make them fold." I say, smiling.

"I'll keep your secret what are you holding?" She asks, laughing at my analogy.

"Two of Hearts, Three of Clubs, Six of Diamonds, and a card from a different game entirely." I joke, and we both have a laugh.

"You've never really told me, what exactly do you plan to do once we leave here?"

"Immediately after we leave we are heading to Primm, making sure that Hayes has his troops and that the town is still okay. After that it's north to NCRCF, to try and free that sheriff and get him to take over law in Primm, we escort him back if he chooses to do so, then we head back down this way, head to Novac, I'm hoping there I'll find some more information about the guy who shot me in the head, maybe figure out why he wanted my package so bad. I figure that the man himself is in Vegas, but I don't have any actual proof that that is the case." I say, having reinforced this plan many times in my head.

"What do you want with him? You don't seem like the blind revenge type. Justice yes, revenge no." She asks. I hear some footsteps come up the planks, and see Delilah and Willow's heads peek over the edge of the rooftop.

"Come on up you two, we're just planning out what's happening. As for what I plan to do when I see him, ask him questions mostly, get my package back by any means necessary and deliver it to proper recipient. The pay at this point is trivial but I will collect it, and from there I really don't know. I know I'm done with carrying letters, but I'll probably take any job that lands in my lap. I guess what I want to do more than anything is just help people. I want to make life in the wasteland as easy as possible for everyone. I heard these stories about a few people who have had similar ideals, and the things that they've done. Call it inspiration if you will, but I hope to be able to do at least a tenth of what they've done." I say, gesturing for Delilah and Willow to lie down with us.

"Who are they?" Willow asks, before yawning, obviously tired.

"There are three in particular I've heard of over the years: The Vault Dweller, who stopped the Master's army, The Chosen One, who took down the Enclave at the oil rig, and The Lone Wanderer, who apparently purified all the water in the Capital Wasteland, and destroyed the remnants of the Enclave that existed there." I say, recalling the stories I'd heard.

"I'm sure you'll manage, and I'll be there to help you every step of the way!" Delilah says, before taking a spot on my left and curling into my side.

"As will I, I promised didn't I?" Willows says, before she decides to lay on my chest.

"Guess I'm getting dragged into this too." Ghost says, beforetaking a spot to my right and scooting herself slightly closer to me.

You know, maybe this won't be so bad, travelling with these girls. I think, before drifting off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: My Kind of Town

Boy was I wrong. These women are going to kill me. I awake to find a rather ample bust in my face, and unfortunately, it makes me panic and I'm unable to breathe. I eventually end up throwing the woman on top of me to the ground and then try to control my breathing. Looking at who I throw I notice that it is Willow, who is now wide awake and is holding her arm.

"Sorry about that, you were in my face, I panicked and couldn't breathe, you ended up over there. I can take a look at your arm if you want." I say, apologizing, I grab my respirator and pop it in my mouth for a moment, taking a few breaths of pure oxygen before removing it and letting it dangle around my neck. My panic appears to have awoken the other girls, and Willow has since said that she was fine, more shocked than in pain.

"Well, I guess we should be leaving for Primm?" Ghost asks, taking a glance down the road.

"Yes, gather your things and meet me in front of the main office. I've got a few things to discuss with the traders around here." I say, before making my way to the various traveling merchants that are currently inhabiting the Mojave Outpost. I make a few purchases and sell as much of the loot that we've acquired as I can, before making my way to where I told everyone to meet up.

"So, what'd you buy from the merchants?" Delilah asks, seeing a bag slung over my shoulder that wasn't there before.

"Well, given our current travelling situation, I figured it would be a good idea to distribute weapons and ammo so that none of us use the same type of ammo and everyone is using something that they are skilled with." I say, before asking everyone to come with me to a picnic table out back and place their weapons on the table.

Ghost places a cowboy repeater on the table, Delilah places the Varmint Rifle I gave her, saying she doesn't want to be separated from her dad's revolver, Willow places Shorty and Beauty, but mentions that she'd like to keep using them. I unload the bag as well as all the weapons I am carrying onto the table, as well as some weapon mods that I've acquired. On the table lays a Service Rifle, Delilah's Varmint Rifle, Ghost's repeater, A grenade rifle, a 10mm pistol, the Chopper, the Machete I pulled from that Jackal gang member, A shovel, a Sig Sauer P220, a Colt 6520, a Sturdy Caravan Shotgun, a silenced .22 pistol, and a hunting rifle with a scope.

"I want that hunting rifle." Ghost says, picking up the rifle. "My training is as a sniper, so this is the best weapon for me I can see. I'll also take the Colt, I'll need something for closer up." We agree that she's probably the best one to use it.

"I've got Beauty and Shorty, so I'm pretty well covered, I don't like being up close, I'd be willing to learn to use my fists, but I'd need a teacher." Willow says, taking everything that belongs to her and placing it in her holsters.

"I don't have training with anything but my service rifle and 9mm, so I'll just keep those." Ashley says, she gave me a note earlier, and said for me to wait to read it until she told me to. I figure I'll listen to her.

"I'll take that repeater if you don't mind. I need something for stuff that's a bit farther than my revolver can handle." Delilah says, taking the .357 repeater and slinging it over her back, I hand her the other revolver and all the .357 ammo we have.

"Okay, guess I've got the Service Rifle, the Sig, the Grenade Rifle, the Machete, the shotgun and the silent pistol." I say, taking the things I mentioned. "Delilah, you should take the Chopper, and Ghost the shovel, you guys will need a melee, weapon, just in case." I say, "I can stick with Willow since I've got the shotgun, I can handle close range a bit more effectively than any of the rest of us."

"Okay, let's head for Primm." Delilah says, distributing the ammo as needed, the 9mm ammo is split between Willow, Ashley and I. Ghost gets all the .308 and 10mm ammo, Ashley and I split the 5.56 ammo, and I take everything else. Taking a quick second to trade away the Varmint Rifle for some caps, we head off for Primm.

Upon arrival we immediately hear gunshots, and rush to where they are happening. We immediately see the NCR troopers locked in a gunfight with the convicts that were still in the Bison Steve. Since this is my responsibility mostly, I waste no time in drawing my Service Rifle and joining in with the troopers in combat. Before I've been there for three seconds I manage to take down one of the convicts who was taking potshots from one of the windows, and give the troopers a bit of breathing room. I can't see Hayes or Sergeant McGee anywhere, so I take it on myself to try and command these troops.

"Look, you guys have no reason to listen to me, but I've got a plan, and I'd appreciate it if you went with it. Spread out, I want two troopers in the building next to the Mojave Express, and the other three taking cover behind the pillars in front of the Vikki and Vance, I'm going to head in the building and try to flush them out, you see someone coming out of there that isn't me, light em' up." I say, before mentally commanding ED-E to take a position flanking the door to the Bison Steve. "Ghost, I want you to set up at the bridge over the road, take shots as you get them. Willow and Delilah, you two cover her, and Ashley, try to find McGee or Hayes, and see if they can get reinforcements in."

Surprisingly, the troopers listen to me, and take their positions, I break in through the front door and find the front foyer empty. Taking a quick moment to recollect all the bodies I saw outside, I figure that there are about seven convicts left in here, and begin a sneak through the building. After a quick sweep of the first floor, I find it completely abandoned, meaning that the convicts have taken up position on the upper level, undoubtedly trying to set up a bottleneck to deal with troopers, that won't work on me however.

I find the stairs and begin to sneak my way up, before arriving at the door. It's closed, undoubtedly with at least two cons on the other side, waiting for someone to come up so they can gun them down. A plan comes to mind, so I head downstairs and grab a few things. The first, a dust mop, the second, a couch cushion and the third, a roll of duct tape. Heading back to the stair case I duct tape the couch cushion to the large end of the dust mop, before tying a long string to a pin in a grenade and storing it safely inside the cushion. I then take the contraption I have and jam it into the door, which having a push bar on my side opens, this act of pushing also pulls the pin in the grenade, and it goes off, killing the two men at the door. With the Bison Steve still being mostly sound-proof, that muffled explosion was likely unheard by anyone, so I take my shotgun out and make my way through the door. After making sure that no one is getting by me, by laying a mine just on the first stair down the staircase, I make my way through the upper floor. I immediately find two powder gangers in a window, taking potshots out of it at the troopers and my companions, I grab a mine and activate it, before throwing at the wall in between them like a clown does a pie, before slamming the door closed. I hear their screams and then feel the explosion rock the door, before slowly opening it and finding those two dead. Three more are left. I make my way down the hall when I hear a voice say something, the Bison Steve messes with sound so I can't tell what, but I do know that it is just around the corner for me to hear it. I pop a stealth boy before creeping very slowly around the corner, I see one convict guarding the door, with another at the window the third is in there as well, asleep on a mattress. Obviously these three are on rotation, trying to keep themselves motivated to keep this conflict going. After a moment I notice something wrong with how they have this set up, no one is watching the doorman, you'd want one person on the inside as well as one person on the outside, this makes sure that you have an early warning when trouble is coming as well as one immediate backup. This serves to my advantage, taking my way back around the corner and then farther down the hall I record a quick audio message to my Pip-Boy, and then mentally have my pip-boy relay the message to ED-E, and have him move from his place at the main doorway to Ghost. I then have him play the message.

"Ghost, I need you to keep the last guy in the window's attention, I don't care if you hit him or not, just make sure his focus is outside at you." The message says.

Unfortunately, I've got no way of knowing if any of that actually was to happen, all I know is that ED-E followed my instructions, not if Ghost did. Hoping for the best I make my way to the corner that I found the guy standing around and pull out my .22, it's silenced, so it should be nearly completely inaudible to anyone but me in this building, so I take a quick moment and fire three shots at the doorman. He falls without even a scream and I make my way to the doorway. I then pull out my machete and move behind the sniper on the outside window. I grab him quickly and take my machete to his neck and he gurgles before going limp. After that, a quick headshot to the sleeping guy and everyone is eliminated. I send a message loud and clear through ED-E that the top floor is clear and that I'll be heading down in a minute, but for everyone not to come up here.

Taking a moment to loot everything useful from the bodies I make my way to the stairwell and disarm my mine, before heading down and out the front door.

A moment later, Willow arrives with Hayes, McGee, and reinforcements and we have a fun time telling them that I dealt with it, but if they wanted to stick around I had a plan.

Currently, discounting my party, we have 15 soldiers, we can use those numbers to re-take the NCRCF, as we can station the troopers on the hills that surround the facility to keep the guard towers occupied, my group sub-Ghost and Willow, who will be taking positions with the troopers, will infiltrate the facility, speak to the sheriff and kill or apprehend the remaining powder gangers. They agree that the plan is pretty sound, and we make our way south to the facility. With the troopers taking their positions on the cliffs, I make my entrance into the mouth of the facility, with Delilah and Ashley flanking me and ED-E at my back, floating high enough that he can shoot over my head. We take out the door guard with little issue and make our way into the reception area of the facility where two convicts immediately begin firing at us, we disable them before tying their hands together. Another convict is sitting quietly at a table in the area, an older man with a large black cowboy hat.

"You NCR? Here to take back the prison?" He asks, holding his hands behind his head.

"Yes, who are you?" I ask, wondering why he is so calm about this situation.

"Meyers, I was a sheriff before I got arrested for taking law into my own hands." Meyers says, before turning to look at me.

"Good you are who we are here for, Primm is in need of a new Sheriff, while we can't offer you actual officers at the moment, we will have NCR troops at the town who will help in defending it. You would also have a police model protectron who will take orders from you if you choose to accept. You've been granted a pardon if you accept the job, and will be free from overarching NCR rules except in situations dealing with troopers and officers, this should let you decide how best to handle law enforcement decisions, though the actual laws will be voted on by the town itself, with input from the commanding officers stationed there. You would be involved in that process as well. Do you accept?" I ask.

"Be a fool not to, If you don't mind, could you escort me out of here? I know what you are going to do to these guys and I'm not looking to be a part of it." He says, getting up with his hand still behind his head.

"Do you know anyone who will actually just surrender peacefully and not be killed?" I ask, before letting him leave.

"Nope, the only ones who didn't want to be part of the riot sans me left for a place up north, since the convicts who did want to riot stayed here to mess with the NCR, one group of the rioters followed the non-rioters, just to make sure that they didn't turn everyone in to the NCR, after this they'll probably wish they did." Meyers says, I have Ashley escort him to Lieutenant Hayes, before coming back to help with the clearing of the facility. There are only around five powder gangers that reside in the main courtyard and they are all dealt with pretty quickly. The ones in the towers are somewhat trickier to deal with, but between the snipers and us we manage to get them all dealt with pretty quickly. After that it is just a matter of attacking the main building which is a lot easier than we thought it would be, as they all came out trying to kill us or escape when they saw what was happening. They were picked off as they exited the door.

"Well, that was way easier than I expected." I say, turning to the two companions who followed me in here.

"Well, they are powder gangers, before this we had killed twenty or so of the people who had resided in this place, plus Meyers said that two separate groups went north, this prison is only meant to hold around 150 people, and that's counting guards. There just weren't enough powder gangers for them to have a good enough hold here." Delilah says, and honestly, I can't fault her logic. We head out of the facility and meet up with Hayes and the troopers.

"Good work Michaels, you'd be promoted for this if you were a soldier, so I'll just thank you instead. Taking this facility back is one less problem we need to deal with. It's an honor to work with you." Hayes says, shaking my hand. "What's next for you after this?"

"I'll be heading to Novac to try to find some information on the guy who shot me in the head." I say, for what feels like the millionth time.

"Good luck to you then, you've got a good head on your shoulders, all of you do really. If you need any help, you can use this radio, you call the NCR will come running." He says handing me a walkie-talkie. "It's only got one signal, and it radios straight to McCarren, and they send the information to the closest base to you, you'll get whatever you need, be it supplies or troop support."

"Thank you this is really something." I say, before making sure to put it on my belt.

"Let's head back up to Primm, we'll swear in the new sheriff, and I'll see if we can maybe kit you up with some supplies, since we've got you ticked as a military asset, we're free to give you whatever we can spare, so maybe you can find something useful in the spare things we have lying around." Hayes says, and we all walk back to Primm celebrating our victory.

Meyer's ceremony goes over without any issues and the town is grateful to have law again. The man named Steve who said he could supply fission batteries for Primm Slim says that for all the contributions I've made for the town, that he'd give me a cut of the profits from the casino he plans to open up in the Bison Steve, as well as a personal suite to use at my leisure.

Ashley then comes up to me, and pulls me and the rest of our party aside. "Guys, I'm going to stay here." She says.

"Why?! I thought we were having so much fun?!" Willow exclaims, tears coming to her eyes. Honestly, I'm a little shocked too, but I can imagine why.

"Honestly, it's not you guys, I've loved travelling with you, getting shot at is even worth it for the company, but this is my home, and I want to help keep it safe. If you ever need me, I'm a radio message away, I managed to talk Johnson Nash into giving me a set of walkie talkies, these have multiple signals, and should reach all the way across the wasteland. My radio will be set at 2, since I was the second person to join your little group Angelo." She says handing me a large bag. "There are around 10 more of those, so there should be plenty for if you manage to attract even more people to you, and if you need even more, I'm sure the NCR can find you some." She asks me to step away for a few moments saying she has somethings to say to the girls that she doesn't want me to hear, but she'll send one of them after me when I can come back.

(AN: Another Angelo-less section!)

"Well girls, all three of you seem to want him, and honestly I can see why, but he's not exactly for me." Ashley says, looking at the three girls. They blush a little at the statement. "I'm not going to say I'm rooting for one of you, but I do want to put a thought in your head. There technically isn't any law that prohibits polygamy, so maybe you girls could share him. He's a goofball, but honestly he's been juggling giving us all his attention pretty well. If you are okay with it, don't make him pick, I know his type, and he'll tear himself apart if he can't make all of you happy with one singular decision."

"Huh, never really thought of that." Delilah says, turning to the other two girls, "I mean, I might be able to… I don't really know."

"Think it over, for all we know he might be totally against the idea, or he'll have a single person he wants more than the rest, or he'll find someone else who he wants even more than all of you. Just give it thought." Ashley says before going to get Angelo.

(An: End Angelo-less Scene)

I know better than to ask what they were talking about, as it would probably just end badly for me anyway. I'm sad that Ashley isn't going to be travelling with us anymore, but that is her choice, she is more than welcome to join back up with us at any time and we'll accept her with open arms. I tell her this and give her a hug goodbye.

After all the goodbyes are said, I turn to my companions, now one less, and ask "We ready to go?" I receive various versions of yes and we head off, onward towards Novac, and towards the answers I have been seeking for…. Wait it's been a week since I woke up?! Could've sworn it'd been longer than that.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: They Continued to go That-A-Way, but we didn't.

 **AN: This chapter really has nothing happen in terms of main story progress. This server to more flesh out characters and the relationships between them, test my chops when writing a specific type of scene, and also be a chapter that didn't require me to actually play the game to get inspiration for. This makes the second time since I've started this story that I have lost a save file that this is based on do to mod issues. Apologies for taking so long to update, but some issues came up that took a bit of priority, on the bright side, you get a nearly 5k word chapter out of it.**

Realistically, nothing interesting should've happened on our way to Nipton at least, we'd cleared the roads and the NCR should now be confident enough in their position to at least maintain the place.

I was wrong.

That is how we have ended up in a gunfight with some Jackal gang members around where we saved Willow. On the plus side, we are both better armed and armored than most of them. On the downside, they outnumber us 3:1. We're in the Nevada Highway Patrol Station, and we're currently fighting while surrounded.

When we left Primm, we had thought that we could make it to the Mojave Outpost before nightfall, but had forgotten quite how long it would take us to walk it, so we camped out in side the station for the night. The station itself seemed easy to defend, and ED-E was more than capable of watching the door and alerting us during the night if anything decided to come in. Throughout the night nothing happened, and I had woken up early enough to make some coffee for the girls, as they all love the stuff, despite the fact that I don't. There was a coffee machine here and a quick use of a fission battery got it up and running to make a couple pots. They were enjoying their caffeine based breakfast when ED-E began to play his combat music. I figured he'd seen a gecko or an ant, and had made my way to the window to investigate while everyone else drank. Outside I'd spotted 15 Jackal gang members, heading toward Primm, probably hearing that the powder gangers had been dealt with and thinking they could take the place while it was weak. They did however turn this way, as they thought that the previous residents of this place (the jackals who attacked Willow) were still here.

A few shots from me and ED-E from the windows let them know they weren't welcome, and then the war started. By the time that everyone had finished drinking and had taken positions. Ghost and Willow took mine and ED-E's placement by the windows, and began firing at the gang members. I had pulled out my shotgun and took my place a few feet from the door, enough that my spread could cover all of it, but close enough that I wouldn't catch Ghost and Willow with it. ED-E took his standard position of right behind me, with his laser trained on whatever I could see, hovering enough over my head to give him clear shots without risking injury to me. Delilah, has taken her position farther back, packing up our things and making sure that if any of us get hurt, we can treat it easily. The arguably best thing about having two 'medics' in our little group, is that we always have extra medical supplies, as we just seem to hoard them for 'just in case'.

The fight itself was pretty disinteresting, our position gave us plenty of power over them, as we had extreme amounts of cover and they had none. Ghost and Willow proved their sharp shooting prowess by taking down 6 of them apiece, while me and ED-E had taken down two in our initial assault. One of them had been dumb enough to rush the door, and was immediately killed by a laser blast and shotgun shell.

We immediately took to looting the bodies for anything interesting. One of the gang members happened to have some 'Merc Adventurer Armor' in Delilah's size, and she took to wearing it, saying that having the extra pockets and protection it offered was good, that and she said it looked good on her. I agreed. I also found a Colt M4A1, which I immediately swapped out my Service Rifle for. It uses the same ammo, but this one has the option of being single shot or automatic, which I enjoyed. I offered up the service rifle, but no one seemed interested enough in it, so I placed it in my storage trunk. Willow saw me picking up their weapons and examining the craftsmanship before loading them in the trunk and asked me something. "You seem to like weapons a lot, why don't you just collect them?"

"I don't plan to use all of them, I do like to look at them all, and each has its own various uses, but I can't conceivably use every single one." I say, looking at her.

"Yeah, but you love these things, you could keep them in storage and just admire them, not to mention that you'd probably end up with the biggest single armory in the Mojave." She says, pushing.

"That does sound like fun, and it would surely keep me busy, it'd also give me something to do in my down time and just fix these things up." I say, looking at the weapon I'd just picked up. It was a Makarov, a weapon I find personally disinteresting, as it is not a particularly powerful handgun, but I would like to fix it up and keep it, just because I don't have one.

"Go ahead and do it then, I'm sure that you'd like some goal beyond finding your package, and I think a hobby might do you some good." Willow says, before helping me pack the trunk.

"We're close-ish to Goodsprings anyway, we could make it in around two hours, why not just offload some of your collection in the Gas Station? We need to fix the place up a bit anyway, and they should probably get introduced to our home base in the Mojave." Delilah says, looking up at the sun. It's roughly mid-day, we'd lose another day of travel, but it might be worth it. I also have something that's been on my mind lately, and there's someone in Goodsprings I need to talk to about it.

"Well, if everyone is okay with it we can go, I'm not in a gigantic rush, it's unlikely that one day is going to matter much in the long run." I say, looking to the girls for approval. They all give their consent and we make our way back to Goodsprings. This time our journey is rather peaceful, the only thing we even came across that was any amount of hostile was a radroach, and we just left it alone.

As we re-entered Goodsprings we immediately took notice of a large group of people gathered on the porch of the saloon, we decided to investigate.

"What's all the fuss about?" Delilah asks, having lived in this area the longest she knows these people more than the rest of us.

"There's some guy in the saloon, we don't know who he is, but he's giving Sunny quite the stare down, and not in the way that Ringo fella did." One of the settlers say, concerned for my friend I step into the saloon.

"Been waiting for you, Courier." A man says, he wears a long coat that goes to his ankles, and underneath it lies a tactical vest. A cowboy hat sits on his head, and a revolver protrudes prominently from his hip.

"And you would be?" I ask, tensing up, something about this guy doesn't seem right to me. Delilah, Willow, and Ghost have stepped in behind me, and the soft whirring of ED-E eases my nerves ever so slightly.

"Name's unimportant, I'm here though for one simple reason. Legion's put a nice bounty on your head, and I intend to collect, but I'm different from most bounty hunters, I like to look my victims in the eyes beforehand." He says, rising from his position at the bar. He towers over me, definitely mutated somewhat as he's over 7 feet tall, and he's not scrawny from what I can see of his physique. "I challenge you to a duel, me and you, unarmored, fists only. You win, you can do whatever you like with me, I win, I cash the bounty on your head, and your little bitch posse leaves me alone." He says, with an expression on his face that makes me want to punch him. That may also come from the fact that he called MY girls bitches.

Wait my girls? What?

Shaking that thought away I am hesitant to take his challenge. He's got advantage over me in both reach and weight, and given how he made the challenge, probably in experience as well. A thought occurs to me as I ponder his challenge, I might be able to turn this to my favor. "I'll accept your challenge, but we are going to use knives, first person to take a fatal wound, or be put into a position where a fatal wound would occur loses, you can surrender, but I know I won't." I say, throwing my idea down. Delilah, Willow, Ghost and Sunny all look at me and give me a look of worry.

"I'll accept your terms, if your little posse of pussy will… entertain me for a night after I win." He says, I see red, but the girls tell him that he's on, before I can even tell him to go do very inappropriate things to himself. "We'll have our little battle tomorrow morning, in that empty Bighorner pen behind this saloon. Hope these girls can keep me entertained after you die." He says, before cackling and walking off, I turn to the four girls in the room, my group and Sunny, and ask why on Earth they agreed to his terms.

"That guy needs put down! You can beat him anyway; I've never seen anyone handle a knife like you can!" Willow says jamming her fist in the air.

"I agree, and besides, we can make sure you've got an edge on this clown." Sunny says, before putting a hand on my shoulder. "You helped me help Ringo, who I love very much, I'll help you."

"Well, guess there is no backing out of this. Let's unload at the gas station and then I'll need to get some practice in." I say, before making my way out of the saloon. All four of the girls follow me, and we make it to the basement without issue.

Unloading all the weapons I want to keep proves trivial, and displaying them is easy enough with a series of pegs and shelves that line a separate offshoot room that also contains several lockers. On display are several weapons that I've amassed over my adventure, sorted by type and maker. I'll make sure to catalogue all of them one day, but I've got more important matters on my mind. Taking a moment to unpack all of the various other supplies that we don't need from storage, including all of our stock of Sunset Sarsaparilla and Nuka-Cola, which gets loaded into a vending machine that I got working to refrigerate them. I grab my knife, a sharp clip-point straight blade with a solid gripped handle, and make my way to another room that we found in the basement, which appeared to be for breaks pre-war, but now houses a training dummy the girls made with some scrap while I was arranging my guns. We spend about two hours trying to get my skills to be as good as they can be, with Delilah giving me tribal tips Uncle Sulik gave her, and Ghost attempting to recall her ranger training techniques. We also manage to find a book on knife self-defense, and I pour over that until I've pulled everything I can.

As a test, Ghost recommends that I spar with her, and put everything I've learned to the test, saying that if I can take down a ranger, there's no one I can't defeat. We agree to keep the sheathes on our knives, but treat each blow as though it were as severe as it could be. We start and immediately she rushes at me, I roll back and throw her before swinging myself back onto my feet, I recover and find her still on the ground, so I decide to try and capitalize and move to strike at her, she parries with her own blade and goes in for a stab, I manage to catch her arm and force her to drop her weapon, I kick it away as I sweep her off balance and push my body weight into her knocking her to the ground, a knife pressed to her neck tells her that she lost.

"Not bad Mr. Angel, you took down a ranger." Ghost says, before standing up and patting me on the back, "You realize that that might not work on your opponent tomorrow? He's a lot bigger than I am, that throw will do you some good, but you might not be able to push him down."

"Yeah, I know, but why did you call me Angel?" I ask, I know my name is similar, sharing the same root if that old book I found on names is any indication, but no one has ever called me that before.

"From what the girls have told me when you aren't around you're some paragon of virtue, and given how close it is to your name I figure Angel is a good nickname for you, I'm Ghost anyway, so I figure everyone in the group having something similar would be pretty good." She says, dusting herself off.

"Well, I guess that's fine if you want to call me that, nothing wrong with it I suppose." I say, turning to look at the other two girls, "What do you think?"

"I like it; you are my guardian angel after all!" Willow says, she'd been taking to saying stuff like that recently, saying that God sent me to save her. I know all about the pre-war Christian religion, and know that the New Canaanites in Utah follow it, I'm not personally a believer, but I'm not going to step on someone else's.

"While I'm not as excited as Willow is, I think it works." Delilah says, before blushing ever so slightly.

"Well, it's getting kind of late, and I'm tired. I'm going to be fighting for my life and so that way you guys don't have to 'entertain' that guy." I say, shuddering as I think about what he'd do to them.

"You'll beat his ass and then you can do those things to us!" Willow says, before letting out a small noise.

"What'd you say?" I ask, having missed the last part as she'd mumbled it ever so slightly.

"I said to beat his ass so he can't do those things to us!" Willow says, with a blush on her face, after I accept that she lets out a sigh, and looks to be relieved. I wonder what's going on in her head.

"Well, night girls." I say before making my way to my room. I remove my armor and put on a set of pajama pants and a t-shirt that I'd found. I was getting ready to lay down when Delilah and Willow come in. "Hey, did you guys need something?" I ask, concerned, they have this look on their face that doesn't sit well with me, it's almost like they are guilty, but also very worried.

"We've got something to tell you, but we need you to do something before we do it." Willow says, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

"What is it?" I ask, looking at the girls.

"You need to beat that asshole tomorrow, I don't care if you kill him, but you can't let him kill you." Delilah says, "I'll patch up anything that happens to you, but you need to try to avoid it."

"I didn't plan to let him win." I say, confused as to why they thought I wouldn't give it everything I had.

"Well, if you beat him, and I think you will, we'll tell you something that means a lot, but we need you to promise us something else." Willow says.

"What do I need to promise you?" I ask, these girls are making me nervous.

"That no matter what happens after we ask you, we'll still be friends and travelling companions." Willow says, and Delilah nods.

"What would make you think it wouldn't? Short of you guys suddenly becoming horrible people I don't think I could stand to leave you guys." I say.

"Good, now do you mind if we sleep in here with you tonight? We want to make sure you realize you've got something to fight for tomorrow." Delilah says.

"If that's what you guys want." I say nervously, I'm going to have two very attractive girls in my bed, and they are wearing some clothing that I find very attractive, they are both wearing a tank top and spandex shorts that volleyball players used to wear pre-war, this would be another guys dream, and honestly it's mine as well, but I don't want them to think me to be some kind of pervert.

They take positions on either side of me and cuddle into my sides as I wrap my arms around them, while this is nice, I'm having difficulties keeping my composure. I decide it's best to just sleep and use that as an excuse if anything happens, as it is the truth.

Morning comes and I find both of the girls still asleep, however they are now laying their heads on my chest and having their bodies run parallel to my sides. While this is a sight I very much enjoy, and I wouldn't want to disturb them, my arms are asleep and I have a knife fight to go to. I shake them awake and say that we need to get up. They make their way to their rooms to get dressed as I do the same. I leave my armored clothing here, and merely take my khaki cargo pants, combat boots and the white T-Shirt I'd become so fond of, as well as two holsters, one on my chest that holds my main knife, and one on my leg, that holds a few smaller throwing knives. I'm decently accurate with them, but they exist more for distraction than anything else. With the girls each ready, we make our way topside to see a crowd forming around where me and the bounty hunter are to fight, he's waiting in the middle of the area. I get my first good look at him, and I'm slightly scared. He still towers over me, and is as large as I had imagined he would be under that coat, looking like one of the legion praetorians with his massive tree-trunk arms, he also has incredibly long hair that reaches his lower back, and a scar that travels across his face. His eyes are closed currently, but a smirk is present.

"I'd honestly thought you wouldn't show up, figured you'd go running scared." He says, opening his eyes.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I really don't like you, and can't wait to kick your ass." I say, one thing I've learned is that when dealing with strong opponents, you should always exude confidence, even if you don't have it. This puts them off their game, makes them think you have a plan or strategy that negates their advantage over you.

"Confident are we?" No, I'm not. "Well then, ditch your bitches and enter the ring, we've got a score to settle before I score." I don't know if this guy is doing this just to make me mad, or if he's just a dick, bit it is working, I'm furious and want nothing more than to choke this guy to death with his own penis, but I manage to control myself and my nerve.

I enter the ring and the match begins, he runs at me, knife at the ready, and I dodge to his left. He stops and turns around, before flipping his grip on his knife and running at me again, instead of a charge like last time, this is more to close distance. He swings and I parry with my blade, before I kick him in the knee. He chuckles before bringing his fist down on my shoulder. It hurts, but I don't give him the satisfaction of a reaction. I take my knife and quickly slash at his arm, I manage to cut him deep, deep enough that he's definitely feeling it right now, as he howls and glares at me. I brings his knife back down and I catch it with my own. He's stronger than me, and his height advantage gives him the benefit of gravity, but I know that, and can use it against him. Shifting my weight slightly, I pull my knife away from his, and watch as he stumbles slightly from all of the force he was pressing down on me with. He charges again, and I roll back and flip him over me, he manages to cut my leg on the way, but he does end up on the ground behind me. I stand up, my leg screaming at me to not move and jump on his stomach, this winds him and makes him lose his grip on his knife, I kick it away, and he throws a punch at me, knocking me to the ground. I too lose my knife and he's placed himself on top of me, trying to pummel me into the dirt. I close the distance between us, knowing that he can't get any good hits in at such a close distance due to his long arms. I'm essentially wrapped around his torso right now, and contemplating what I should do. I try to roll him, but he's so much stronger than me that I can't do it, and my attempt earns me a nice hit to the back of my head. I then have a plan, and it's so crazy that it just might work. I throw my body weight to the ground off of him and he staggers just a bit, I then grab a handful of dirt from the ground and throw it in his eyes, while simultaneously throwing him off of me. He gets off and clutches his eyes and I grab the knife closest to me, which is mine. I throw one of my knives into his leg and he screams a knife blade to the neck proves his loss.

"Well I'll be damned you beat me." He says, lowering his arms.

"You made me mad enough to want nothing more than your head on a platter." I say, pushing the knife closer to his neck.

"Well, I promised, so go ahead, do it." He says, accepting his end with a certain coolness that I hadn't seen in an adversary.

"Answer some questions for me." I say, not giving him an option.

"Ask em'." He says.

"Why were you after me?"

"Caesar's got a huge bounty on you, I wanted the money, and didn't want to disappoint him."

"Are you a legion soldier?"

"Was, left the main army because I didn't want to end up like Joshua if I lost. I decided to offer my services elsewhere as an assassin, and Caesar decided it was acceptable."

"Why shouldn't I kill you right now?"

"Because it'd be a crime to all the bitches of the world." That sentence sealed his fate.

After my knife severed his carotid arteries I leave him to bleed out, limping my way to Delilah.

"Think you could stitch me up? I can't quite do it alone." I ask, the knife cut me on the back of my calf, not it a place I can self-suture.

"I'll think about it." Delilah says with a laugh as she pulls out our medical kit and gets to work.

"Well, I won, so what did you two want to tell me?" I ask, while Delilah cleans my wound.

"Well, we have developed feelings for you over the time we've been traveling together, both of us want you and neither one of us wants to give up, Ashley gave us some advice before we left Primm, and we've thought about it, so we decided that we would like to share you." Willow says, holding my hand.

This is a lot to take in. I thought they were acting a bit differently around me than they did around others, but I figured it was because we travelled together. "Do you guys really want me? I mean I'm a wimp who is terrified of ants and scorpions, on a mission to talk to a guy who shot me in the head because he took the package I was meant to deliver, I'm not exactly the best 'boyfriend' material." I say.

"Yeah, but we love you for it, life in the wasteland is pretty short, and we don't want to regret not taking our chance at love while we had it. It took that guy threatening to take you away from us before we could say anything." Willow says.

"So, what do you say lover boy?" Delilah asks, having finished with my leg.

"If you guys want this I want you to be happy." I say, and they proceed to hug me, and give me a deep kiss each.

"I promise that you won't regret this, we love you so much that we can't stand the thought of not having you in our lives." Delilah says, holding my arm.

"Now there is just one other problem." Willow says, looking at Delilah.

"What is that?" I ask.

"Well, we're pretty sure that there are others who want you, and now that it's open that you are okay with a polyamorous relationship, there might be others who want some of you." Delilah says, sighing.

"I think that they should have the same chance we did, we fell in love with him, and we decided that we loved him enough to share, I'd be willing to share with someone else if they love him as much as we do." Willow says, and Delilah nods.

"I just want everyone to be happy, if I can make that happen, that's great." I say, trying to stand up on my leg. I manage, though it hurts to put too much weight on it.

"You'll need to let that heal for a few days, so I guess we're staying a bit longer." Delilah says.

"On the plus side, you know have two girls who will be sharing your bed the entire time!" Willow says happily.

"You girls have no shame." Ghost says, looking at them.

"Maybe so, but we love the guy, and we think he's worth it." Delilah says, winking at Ghost.

"Well, at the moment, I need to go talk to someone about something, you girls can do whatever you please, if you need caps, just come find me, I'll be at Pembroke repair." I say, before limping my way over there. All three of them follow, with Delilah fussing over my leg. As I make it to the shop, I hear Paul and Dean arguing over something, but I knock on the door. Paul greets me this time.

"Hey friend, come on in, what's going on?" He asks, motioning me inside, we head to the workshop portion of the place and see Dean working on the truck again.

"I was going to offer you two a job, if you would be interested." I say.

"What have you got for us?" Paul asks, looking at me with interest.

"I see that you've been working on that truck, if you manage to get that up and running I'd like to get you guys to do another one, and then get a trailer attached to it that I can haul, I'd like a faster way to travel across the wasteland, and a comfortable way for everyone with me to travel." I say, laying my cards on the table so to speak.

"Well, that's a pretty big project, we've been working on this one for a couple of weeks, and we're almost done with it. Just need someone with some know-how on nuclear engines to make sure that this won't nuke us when we try to fire it up. You find us someone like that, and a truck and trailer, and you've got yourself a deal." Paul says, reaching out his hand for me to shake.

I shake it and say, "I'll do my best, I'll see if I can find someone, there is a truck in the garage of the gas station, and a trailer by the pumps that no one lives in anymore."

"Well then, once you send that guy our way, we'll use this truck to haul that stuff here." Paul says, before excusing himself back to his work.

"Why do you think we need a truck?" Willow asks, looking confusedly at me.

"Being able to go to and from places quicker than walking will be incredibly useful, and it means that we'll be able to visit our friends more often." I say, before making my way outside.

I look at Goodsprings and for the first time, I don't see the town that saved me, I see my home.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: We Finally Head That-A-Way

 **AN: Sorry for taking so long to write this, this part of the game is just really boring, and I feel it's too early to introduce a new plotline yet. The actual delay for this is both life and writers block as to what to write for this, this story is very purposefully taking a good deal of time between important events to try and show that Angelo really isn't in a rush, he's more enjoying his travels than just pressing on, and he isn't rushed by thoughts of revenge, since that's not what he's after anyway.**

After staying in Goodsprings for a few days we continue on our journey, with everyone sorting out their supplies as need be. Chet had actually managed to acquire a Nickel-Plated Colt M4A1, and traded it for mine, since I thought the weapon was gorgeous. Gone was the plastic body of the previous weapon, and in came the solid, and very shiny, nickel-plated body of this new one, while it was heavier, it felt more durable, and that was something I enjoyed.

Or at least that's what I told myself was the reason I took it besides that it was pretty.

I also acquired a Remington 870 shotgun, which takes a different shell than my old one. I thought having a pump-action rather than a double-barrel would be more useful for me, and it has a larger ammo capacity so I don't need to reload as often in a panic.

We also managed to sort out some more proper armor for everyone, and make sure that everything fit properly. Willow, as it turns out, is a bit of a seamstress, and was able to make the proper modifications to all of our clothes. My gear changed little, I still wear a white t-shirt and beige/tan cargo shorts, but Willow had fastened this shirt out of what she called "Ballistic Fiber", saying it was a pre-war material that was light-weight and bullet resistant. It was heavier than my old cotton shirt, but something that made me less likely to die was nice. I also added a tactical harness and bandoleer to my get-up. The harness had a flashlight embedded in the shoulder that I could control through my Pip-Boy, and therefore my head, and the bandoleer had pockets and pouches for things that I'd need to be able to access quickly, such as a knife or my rebreather, which was removed from my dogtags. I ditched my MP helmet, as it gave the wrong impression of me, and found a pair of dark tinted glasses that still helped my vision. My Sig Sauer keeps its place at my hip, and my knife enjoys it's new home in my bandoleer holster.

Delilah found a new look for herself, and is deciding to stick with it. She found this black corset, and Willow made her a ballistic weave tank top, with a nice set of dark jeans and black boots to cap off the ensemble, she looks both amazingly gorgeous and deadly. Sticking with her position as team medic, she's traded in her old traveling backpack for an emergency first aid kit, filled with everything either of us could need to handle wounds and illnesses occurred on our journey. She has taken my old machete, and placed it on her lower back parallel to the ground. Her revolver has taken its place at her hip, and on the other sits a messenger bag, filled with literature and notebooks.

Ghost has arguably changed the least, keeping her old hat and glasses on her face. Her vest was swapped with a ballistic weave one, and she now has a knife holster on her calf. Across her back is slung a scoped rifle, and on her hip is a Colt 6520.

Willow has, at my suggestion, gotten rid of her hat, mainly because I like seeing her hair, and also done away with her gecko-skin jacket, though she did keep the shoulder pads. She now wears a very thin open ballistic vest with her shoulder pads added over top of it, with a white tank top underneath. Her pants were mainly unchanged, and are still dark jeans, with cowgirl boots to complete her image. Strung on her back is her lever-action rifle, Beauty, and the old shotgun I used to carry. On her hip is Shorty, her 9mm pistol. She has taken a very specific set of items with her that she calls 'her cooking kit'. She has recently taken to cooking all of our meals and when asked why, she responded that she loves to cook and that none of the rest of us can worth shit.

She's honestly probably right about that last one.

ED-E was left at the gas-station, to act as a guard for both our things, and the town. He is given orders to listen to Sunny Smiles, and to help maintain as friendly an atmosphere as possible. Sunny had radioed in on out journey saying that the farmers were thankful, since ED-E would play radio broadcasts for them while they tended their crops and livestock.

The two-day journey from Goodsprings to Nipton went without incident, beyond being thanked by settlers and soldiers for helping to secure the area. Arriving in Nipton we see that it hasn't been cleaned up yet, and that no one seems to have moved back in. I make a note to come back and try to help set up a new town here, there aren't that many truly safe places out in the wastes, and Nipton would be relatively easy to defend.

The map on my Pip-Boy has us take Highway-95 all the way from here through Novac and the 188 to Vegas, so we follow the road and attempt to make the most of our trip.

We barely make it twenty feet out of Novac before we are attacked by gang members. I've honestly been dealing with these guys so much lately that I can't even distinguish which group they belong to anymore. The girls and I make quick work of them, and loot the bodies to find nothing worth mentioning beyond guns to sell, not even an item for my collection.

The trip along the road has us attacked by gang members once more, and they are dealt with as quickly and with as much ease as the previous group. I then see a comm-tower and look to my Pip-Boy and find that we are at Ranger Station Charlie. It is getting dark by this point and we decide to ask if we can bunk here for the night. Entering the main building we are immediately stopped.

"McCarren doesn't like it when civilians walk into military bases, either state your reason for being here, or leave. Failure to comply will result in immediate resonse of death." A man in ranger uniform says, standing from his seat to look at the door.

"I'm an NCR M.A. I was wondering if my group and I could bunk here for the night." I say, showing him my tags. When we travelled through Primm, Lieutenant Hayes stopped me and gave me an additional dogtag, saying it would identify me as an asset, the girls were also given similar ones.

"That's fine, though there are no extra bunks here in the main building, there are a few in some of the scattered trailers." The ranger says, before taking back his seat.

"Why do you speak so robotically?" Willow asks, stunning us with how forward she was with the question.

"I was injured in duty, head wound, only way to save my life was to graph some robot bits to my brain that I don't understand. Upon awakening from my surgery, my speech pattern had changed. I am unable to change it back, but my clear concise word choice has made me very useful as a comm officer." He says, at this point I manage to catch a glimpse of his tags, they read Joseph H. Stepinac

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you Stepinac." I say, before I walk out quickly. Something about this place gives me the heebie-geebies, but I don't know what.

The girls follow me and we find a secluded trailer in the back corner of the station to call ours for the night. I pull a thick sheet out of Pip-Boy storage and nail it over the entrance, that should hopefully keep the radscorpions out. After a quick meal that was prepared by our lovely cook Willow, we all fall asleep.

Being the light sleeper I am, upon hearing a noise I immediately awake. Looking out the window of the trailer I'm in I see several legionaries entering camp. I quickly wake the girls and inform them of the situation. I then begin to sneak my way outside of the trailer and try to take a position to where I can see the entirety of the ranger station.

I find a place that is surrounded by sandbags, and pull out my M4A1. I then begin firing upon the legionaires. A single shot takes out a legion recruit and scatters them, effectively ruining whatever plan they had before.

Delilah emerges from our trailer and fires her revolver straight into the face of a legionnaire, while Ghost sticks her rifle out of the window and fires at a legionnaire separating his head from his shoulders.

This was a small party, only consisting of seven legionnaires, and my group deals with them effectively. Upon dispatching the final one, I make my way to the main building and make sure everyone is okay.

"You! You are working with those legion scum! You brought them to us and got them to try and kill us!" Stepinac says, pointing a shotgun at my face. I'm surprisingly used to this, and remain calm.

"Tell that to the seven legionnaires my group and I just killed outside, I was just traveling on the road to Novac and found this place, I stayed here because it was about to be dark and I didn't want to make my way to Novac in the dark. I didn't bring any legion here." I say, keeping my hands up and trying to convince him that I'm not trying to kill him, though he is making it rather tempting right now.

"Bethany, go check his story." Stepinac says, referring to a trooper that is in the room. She leaves for a moment and comes back in, confirming my story. Stepinac lowers the shotgun from my face. "I suppose an apology is in order, but that timing was too suspicious."

"I suppose it's possible I inadvertently brought them here, as I am a high priority target for them, but I would never bring them intentionally." I say, accepting his rather terrible apology.

"Well, I doubt they'll launch another attack anytime soon, so we should all probably go back to sleep." Stepinac says, relocating himself to the other room.

The girls and I make our way back to our trailer, where Delilah insists on looking me over for wounds, however, I'm fairly certain she just took this as an excuse to feel me up, as she spent an extended period of time checking my legs. She also had Willow help in examining me, which lends credence to my previous thoughts.

After managing to 'convince' them that I'm fine, mainly by forcing them to let me sleep, we do manage to go back to sleep and wake up just after dawn. After stepping outside and ensuring that everything is still fine, we make our way to the main building and bid the troops farewell as we continue on our path to Novac.

We take notice of the large dinosaur as soon as we exit the small canyon we were in, and Willow squeals about how cute it is. As we continued north towards the artificial lizard, we make notice of a saloon off to our east, and mark it on the map as something to check out in the future. Willow then mentions how she remembers hearing about a Repconn Site nearby, and that her old traveling companion was heading there to look for someone, she mentions she'd like to see if he's there, and I say that we'll check it out.

Entering the town proper, we are immediately surprised at how busy it is, Goodsprings is a nice town, but it's rather quiet. Novac however, is a bustling center of caravan commerce and business. There are a few traders set up relaxing, with some of their wares on display. While we find nothing of particular interest, we do manage to offload some of our acquired gear and make a hefty profit. Given that we need to stay in the area for a bit, Willow suggests we see about renting one of the bungalows, saying that this place reminds her of home.

We enter the main office of what appears to be the hotel and we are immediately greeted by an outrageously friendly woman. "Welcome to Novac travelers! I'm Jeannie May Crawford, and I run the hotel here, would you like to rent a room?" She asks, with a large beaming smile on her face. This woman reminds me of my 'grandma' back NCR way, the woman who adopted me, and that warms my heart just a bit.

"Yes, is one of the bungalows open for rent?" I ask, being as polite as possible.

"Yessir, 150 caps and it's yours 'til we get real busy." She says, holding a key in front of her. I pay her the caps and she hands it to me with a smile. On the key is a keyring, with a miniature dinosaur dangling from it. Undoubtedly, Willow is planning to steal it to attach to her belt or backpack as I examine it.

"Thanks a lot ma'am, now, I'm looking for a man in a checkered suit with black hair, have you seen anyone like that in a while?" I ask, trying to get some information on the guy.

"I reckon' I did, he went to talk to Manny Vargas, one of our two snipers in the Dino Mouth, you can find Manny there during the day, but I'd steer clear at night, that's when Boone is out, and he's not exactly the friendliest guy." Jeannie says.

"What's wrong with Boone?" I ask, I remember during my time in training they were considering me for First Recon, said I was a good enough shot, and I remember Manny Vargas and a Craig Boone being among their ranks, it'd make sense that they'd end up someplace together upon retirement.

"He thinks someone kidnapped his wife, although I'm not convinced that she didn't just walk off herself." Jeannie says, there is something in her eyes, I can't tell what it is, but it's there.

"Well, I think I'll speak to him, I know what it's like to lose a loved one, and sometimes you do need help to heal." I say, gauging her reaction, she seems flustered by my response, as though she was expecting me to just blindly believe her.

"Well, okay then, enjoy your stay in Novac!" Jeannie says. We step outside and make our way to the bungalow that matches the number on our key. Upon entering we are surprised to see that it is rather spacious, with three rooms, one of which being a bathroom. On one side is a small kitchen, with a fridge and stove, along with cabinet space and a coffee machine. Next to that is a series of lockers, undoubtedly for storage, and also a nice workspace.

"Woah! Fancy! I love it here!" Willow says, before running around the bungalow and gasping over every small sight.

"Well, you said this place reminded you of home, what'd you mean by that?" I ask, taking a seat on the couch that is present in the room.

"You know that I grew up in Klamath, and my family ran a hotel there, Dad and my brothers would handle the maintenance and hunting, while me and mom would deal with cooking and cleaning. I loved it there!" Willow says, taking a stroll down memory lane.

"That seems rather sexist, making the women do housework while the men did all the outside stuff." Ghost says, true to her name she is rather quiet, and tends to not speak much unless she does have something to add.

"That was by choice, I love to cook and clean, I wasn't made to do it, and while I also like hunting I couldn't do both, so I decided to do 'house wife' duties, I think that's what they called them pre-war." Willow says. She always did strike me as a 'girly girl' as the texts from before the war called it.

"Didn't you have anything else you wanted to do? Is that all you wanted out of life?" Delilah asks, voicing my thoughts.

"I did want to travel, that's why I'm here now, but as far as an endgame for my life, I just want to settle down and raise kids, maybe run a hotel or store in my spare time, but I really want to just be a mommy." Willow says, scooping up a pillow and cradling it like a child.

"That's something I've never heard anyone say before, my sister always wanted to be a bounty hunter, said she 'was going to be the biggest badass since Chuck Norris'." I say, remembering my family.

"Who's Chuck Norris?" Delilah asks, and Ghost and Willow echo her statement.

"He was a movie star in the late 20th century and early 21st. He was famous for being an incredibly good fighter and all around tough guy." I say, hoping to give them an idea of the legend I'd seen on old holotapes.

"Your sister musta been one hell of a girl." Delilah says, before taking a seat somewhere else in the living room.

"She was, but let's rest up here for a bit and just relax, I want to speak to this night sniper, something about what Jeannie says doesn't sit right with me." I say, before leaning back and placing my hands behind my head.

This will definitely be an interesting conversation.


End file.
